Connecticut couple charged in $1 million theft of Lululemon goods

A Connecticut couple were charged with being part of an organized retail theft operation that is suspected of stealing about $1 million in Lululemon merchandise across several states, authorities said.

The couple, Jadion Anthony Richards, 44, and Akwele Nickeisha Lawes-Richards, 45, of Danbury, Connecticut, were each charged with one felony count of organized retail theft this month in connection with crimes that began in September, according to the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota.

They were arrested at a Lululemon store in Woodbury, Minnesota, one day after they went to a Lululemon store in Roseville, Minnesota, where they and an unidentified man stole 45 items worth nearly $5,000, according to the charges.

An investigator for Lululemon, who is identified in court documents only by the initials R.P., said that the couple began by stealing from Minnesota stores in Edina, Minneapolis and Minnetonka.

The investigator said that the couple had also hit Lululemon stores in Connecticut, Colorado, New York and Utah.

After their arrest, police searched a hotel room in Bloomington, Minnesota, where the couple had been staying, and found a dozen suitcases with $50,000 worth of Lululemon attire, with price tags still attached, according to court records.

Richards and Lawes-Richards appeared in court on Nov. 18. Richards was released on $100,000 bail, and Lawes-Richards was released on $30,000 bail. Their release was with conditions, such as weekly check-ins.

They each face up to 15 years in prison and a $35,000 fine. It was not immediately clear whether the couple had lawyers.

“This outcome continues to underscore our ongoing collaboration with law enforcement and our investments in advanced technology, team training and investigative capabilities to combat retail crime and hold offenders accountable,” Tristen Shields, vice president of asset protection for Lululemon, said in a statement.

This is the first case that the county is prosecuting under a state law, enacted last year, that addresses organized retail theft.

The law increased penalties when the intent is to resell items, and not to shoplift goods for personal use.

A person is guilty of organized retail theft, the law says, if he or she is working with at least one other person in “a retail theft enterprise”; was previously involved in at least two separate retail thefts in a six-month period; and tried to sell the goods or return them for anything of value.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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