Two Minnesota women have been charged with organized theft after they directed another woman to steal more than $5,000 worth of merchandise from a Lululemon store in Minneapolis, according to a report.
According to documents filed in court, Lululemon investigators noticed a significant amount of theft at its downtown store and identified a suspect after speaking with store employees and viewing surveillance footage.
The suspect — who has not been charged — would take bags from the store, fill them with other stolen items and then leave without paying.
According to the complaint, investigators placed GPS trackers on several bags throughout the store and were able to locate the suspect.
The complaint states the woman would bring the stolen items to the Diamond Nails salon in nearby Crystal, Minnesota, then leave the salon without the bags and with a “large sum of money in her hand.”
When police arrested the suspect, she said a woman who worked at the salon — who she called Van — had asked her to steal the clothes.
The suspect said Van would give him $400 for the stolen clothing.
He said Van would then remove the security tags and resell the stolen items.
The suspect said he had made at least 100 transactions with the van.
In one instance, the tracker showed stolen items remained at the salon for several hours before being moved to a roommates’ home nearby, the complaint states.
Police officers said they saw the van leave the nail salon carrying large plastic garbage bags.
Minneapolis police officers located two women — 56-year-old Mai Hoang Thi Van and 24-year-old Kathy Nguyen — who lived together. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune,
At the time the burglar was arrested, police officers conducting surveillance of the roommate's home observed two women and a man “rapidly removing several white plastic bags containing items from the home,” the complaint states.
The complaint states that police officers found “numerous white plastic bags of stolen Lululemon merchandise” and security tags at the defendants' home.
The total value of the stolen clothing is still unclear, but the complaint states the stolen merchandise was worth more than $5,000.
