A Connecticut couple has been charged in connection with an elaborate two-month theft spree at Lululemon stores across the country that an investigator with the retailer estimates netted about $1 million worth of product.
Jadion Richards, 44, and Akwele Lawes-Richards, 45, were arrested on Nov. 14 in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul suburb of Woodbury.
The couple, hailing from Danbury, Connecticut, were arrested for organized retail theft after a Lululemon retail crime investigator reported the couple to the Minnesota police.
But Lululemon’s investigator said that the evidence proves that their crimes started in September and they were committed in states such as Utah, Colorado, New York, and Connecticut as stated in the criminal complaint.
Lawyers for Richards and Lawes-Richards did not reply to USA TODAY’s request for comment on Thursday.
Richards Said That He Was Discriminated Against Based On Race, The Complaint Says
Richards and Lawes-Richards were arrested after they left the Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota on November 14 when the security alert was triggered according to the criminal complaint.
Richards reportedly said store employees racially targeted him and the two were free to go after that.
The Lululemon investigator later accused the two of shoplifting 45 items worth almost $5,000 the previous day, November 13, with an unidentified man.
The same day, the duo was said to have stolen from four other stores in Minneapolis, Edina and Minnetonka. Police officers arrested the couple at the Lululemon in Woodbury.
The two denied any involvement in the theft, Lawes-Richards allegedly telling the police that he was living with his aunt and had only been in Minnesota for a day.
The officers also discovered on the couple several credit and debit cards, an access card to a room at the Marriott hotel.
With the help of a search warrant, the officers found 12 suitcases in the room, three of which were packed with Lululemon clothes with tags still on them, which cost over $50,000, as per the complaint.
Altogether, the company investigator thought that the couple has taken up to one million dollars of stolen product, according to the complaint, although the complaint does not reveal how the investigator came up with such a high figure.
Couple Blocked Cameras Among Other Tactics: Investigator
The Lululemon investigator said one of the couple’s alleged strategies was that one of them would engage the associates in conversation while the other would place merchandise in the garments they were wearing, the complaint stated.
Another method was that the two left the store, while one of them held a low quality product that they had purchased and the other one carrying other high quality products that had the sensors as alleged in the complaint.
For instance, when the alarm would ring, only the person who had a cheap, purchased item would remain behind and produce a receipt while the other would continue strolling away with the stolen merchandise, the complaint alleges.
The pair are alleged to have been involved in eight thefts in Colorado on Oct. 29 and 30 and seven in Utah on Nov. 6 and 7, the complaint says.
The couple is currently detained in the Ramsey County jail in Minnesota, according to the records of the court. The accused will be back in court on Dec 16.
