In a Minnesota Hotel Room, Suitcases Full of Lululemon

An East Coast couple arrested for alleged theft at a Lululemon store in Minnesota are now at the center of a probe into a wider $1 million crime spree in multiple states. The Star Tribune reports that 44-year-old Jadion Richards and 45-year-old Akwele Lawes-Richards of Danbury, Connecticut, were detained on Nov. 14 and charged a day later in Ramsey County with organized retail theft, tied to crimes that took place over the past two months. According to a criminal complaint, the couple had been stopped at a Lululemon store in Roseville on that Wednesday when they tried to exit the women's athletic wear store and set off security alarms, per USA Today. Richards is said to have complained that he'd been racially profiled, and employees reportedly let the pair leave.

"The couple later commit[ed] fraudulent returns with the stolen items at different Lululemon stores," police say, which led to their arrest at the Lululemon store in Woodbury, per the Kansas City Star. A retail fraud investigator later claimed that the two had been at the same store the day before, on Nov. 13, and lifted nearly four dozen items, with a combined value of nearly $5,000. They were alleged to have committed four other thefts that same day, including in Minneapolis. The couple denied involvement in any thefts, but with a search warrant issued after their arrest, police found 12 suitcases in their Marriott hotel room in Bloomington, a quarter of them stuffed with tagged Lululemon clothing, worth more than $50,000.

The investigator estimates the two stole about $1 million in total since September from Lululemon stores not only in Minnesota, but also in Colorado, Utah, New York, and their home state. Among the tactics the two are accused of using in their thefts, per the criminal complaint: having one of them distract staffers while the other shoved Lululemon products into whatever they were wearing. They also allegedly would have one of them set off the security alarm by trying to walk out with a relatively inexpensive item, while the other would sail out the door with more expensive items while store security was dealing with the first incident. Bail for Richards is set at $100,000, while Lawes-Richards' is set at $30,000. Hearings for the two are scheduled for Dec. 16. (More Lululemon stories.)