2 women charged in Lululemon shoplifting scheme in Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two Minnesota ladies are charged with organizing thefts of a number of thousand {dollars}’ price of merchandise from a Lululemon retailer in Minneapolis after which funneling the stolen items by way of a suburban nail salon.

My Hoang Thi Van, 56, and Kathy Nguyen, 24, are every charged with one felony rely of organized retail theft. Minneapolis police tracked down the roommates from suburban Crystal after getting tipped by company investigators for the high-end athletic retailer, the Star Tribune reported.

The felony complaints filed Thursday say Lululemon investigators discovered excessive shoplifting losses at their retailer in downtown Minneapolis, then recognized a suspect by way of surveillance movies and interviews with retailer staff. That suspect, who has not been charged, would steal baggage off a merchandise rack, fill them with items and depart with out paying.

Investigators positioned GPS monitoring tags in a number of baggage, and when the person stole them, tracked her actions. The lady would take the stolen merchandise to Diamond Nails Salon in Crystal, then depart the salon with out the baggage however holding a “giant sum of cash in her hand,” the criticism alleged.

When police arrested the shoplifter, she instructed them she had been directed to steal the garments by a lady who labored on the salon, who she recognized as Van. She mentioned Van would pay her $400 for the garments and take away the theft sensors, then place the stolen merchandise in a plastic bag and resell it. She estimated she had made a minimum of 100 transactions with Van.

Police later discovered “quite a few white plastic baggage of stolen Lululemon merchandise” all through the defendants’ dwelling, together with anti-theft tags that had been eliminated, the criticism alleged.

The full worth of merchandise stolen from the shop was nonetheless being tallied, however the criticism mentioned it was “nicely in extra of $5,000.”

Nguyen’s lawyer didn’t instantly return a name looking for remark Friday. Courtroom data didn’t record an lawyer for Van, and he or she didn’t instantly return a name from The Related Press.