CT Couple Who Stole $1M In Lululemon Merchandise Busted In MN: Reports

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.