WOODBURY, MN — A Connecticut couple stole roughly $1 million in Lululemon merchandise over the course of a multi-state retail theft operation before they were eventually arrested at a store in Minnesota, according to reports.

Danbury residents 44-year-old Jadion Anthony Richards and 45-year-old Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards were charged with felony organized retail theft in connection with the crime spree that started in September, The New York Times reported.

They were arrested Nov. 14 at a location in Woodbury, Minnesota, after hitting another store in Minnesota the day before, according to NBC News, which reported there was $50,000 in Lululemon clothing at Richards’ hotel room. The couple had stolen from three other Minnesota locations as well as from stores in Connecticut, New York, Colorado and Utah, the Times reported.

To pull off the thefts, Richards would enter a store and make a relatively small purchase, according to the Times. Then, he and Lawes-Richards would use a tool to attach a security tag from a different item in the store to one of Richards’ purchases, causing the alarm to go off when he left, the Times reported. Lawes-Richards and a third person would walk out ahead of Richards with stolen merchandise under their clothes, but employees would assume the alarm was from Richards and the misplaced security tag, according to the Times.

A couple from Connecticut faces charges for allegedly taking part in an intricate retail theft operation targeting the apparel company Lululemon that may have amounted to $1 million worth of stolen items, according to a criminal complaint.

The couple, Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested Nov. 14 in Woodbury, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Richards and Lawes-Richards have been charged with one count each of organized retail theft, which is a felony, the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office said. They are from Danbury, Connecticut.

The alleged operation impacted Lululemon stores in multiple states, including Minnesota. 

“Because of the outstanding work of the Roseville Police investigators — including their new Retail Crime Unit — as well as other law enforcement agencies, these individuals accused of this massive retail theft operation have been caught,” a spokesperson for the attorney’s office said in a statement on Nov. 18. “We will do everything in our power to hold these defendants accountable and continue to work with our law enforcement partners and retail merchants to put a stop to retail theft in our community.”

Both Richards and Lawes-Richards have posted bond as of Sunday and agreed to the terms of a court-ordered conditional release, according to the county attorney. For Richards, the court had set bail at $100,000 with conditional release, including weekly check-ins, or $600,000 with unconditional release. For Lawes-Richards, bail was set at $30,000 with conditional release and weekly check-ins or $200,000 with unconditional release. They are scheduled to appear again in court Dec. 16.

Prosecutors had asked for $1 million bond to be placed on each half of the couple, the attorney’s office said.

Richards and Lawes-Richards are accused by authorities of orchestrating a convoluted retail theft scheme that dates back to at least September. Their joint arrests came one day after the couple allegedly set off store alarms while trying to leave a Lululemon in Roseville, Minnesota, and an organized retail crime investigator, identified in charging documents by the initials R.P., recognized them.  

The couple were allowed to leave the Roseville store. But the investigator later told an officer who responded to the incident that Richards and Lawes-Richards were seasoned shoplifters, who apparently stole close to $5,000 worth of Lululemon items just that day and were potentially “responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss to the store across the country,” according to the complaint. That number was eventually estimated by an investigator for the brand to be even higher, with the criminal complaint placing it at as much as $1 million.

Richards and Lawes-Richards allegedly involved other individuals in their shoplifting pursuits, but none were identified by name in the complaint. Authorities said they were able to successfully pull off the thefts by distracting store employees and later committing fraudulent returns with the stolen items at different Lululemon stores.

“Between October 29, 2024 and October 30, 2024, RP documented eight theft incidents in Colorado involving Richards and Lawes-Richards and an unidentified woman,” authorities wrote in the complaint, describing an example of how the operation would allegedly unfold. 

“The group worked together using specific organized retail crime tactics such as blocking and distraction of associates to commit large thefts,” the complaint said. “They selected coats and jackets and held them up as if they were looking at them in a manner that blocked the view of staff and other guests while they selected and concealed items. They removed security sensors using a tool of some sort at multiple stores.”

CBS News contacted Lululemon for comment but did not receive an immediate reply.

Roger Ludlowe Middle School in Fairfield is the fifth-best in the state, and is credited with having a 10:1 student/teacher ratio; 72 percent proficiency in math; and 80 percent proficiency in reading.

U.S. News ranks schools based on “their performance on state-required tests, graduation, and how well they prepare their students for high school.” Click here to read the publication’s methodology.

Roger Ludlowe joins five public elementary schools in Fairfield to be ranked by U.S. News among the state’s best.

The best public middle school in Connecticut is House of Arts Letters and Science Academy in New Britain. Rounding out the top five are Eastern Middle School in Riverside (#2); Saxe Middle School in New Canaan (#3); and Middlebrook School in Wilton (#4).

U.S. News studied publicly available data from the U.S. Department of Education for its ranking, and analyzed 59,128 middle schools throughout the country for the report.

For more information on U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of top public middle schools, click here.