Couple arrested after allegedly stealing $1 million worth of merchandise from Lululemon stores

A Connecticut couple has been accused of stealing merchandise worth $1 million Lululemon stores in at least five states.

The New York Times reports that Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, of Danbury, Conn., have been charged with one felony count of organized retail theft related to a series of crimes that began in September.

According to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota, they were most likely involved in a retail theft. They were detained at Lululemon in Woodbury, Minnesota, just a day after they stole 45 items worth nearly $5,000 from a Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota.

The couple, who began shoplifting in Minnesota stores in Minnetonka, Edina and Minneapolis, as well as other locations in New York, Utah, Colorado and Connecticut, had more than $50,000 worth of Lululemon merchandise at the time of their arrest at a hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota.

According to the investigator, their theft occurred when Richards went to buy one or two items at the store. The pair would then remove the security tag from another item and attach it to one of the items Richards had just purchased. Then they also put the goods under their clothes.

When the alarm went off at the Lululemon location, Richards showed employees what he had just purchased. When this happens, the third person who will be with them will leave with what they have stolen. The next step would be to go to another store and exchange the clothes without a receipt.

After exchanging their clothes for new ones, they made sure that the value of what they had bought was slightly higher than the value of what they had stolen, which resulted in them having to pay the difference and then receiving a bill for the (current) purchase. They would then go to another store and return the items for a full refund.

Court records show Lululemon estimates the company lost nearly $1 million as a result of these thefts.

Both Richards and Lawes-Richards face up to 15 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.