2 women charged in thousand-dollar Lululemon shoplifting scheme in Minneapolis

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MINNEAPOLIS — Two Minnesota women are charged with organizing thefts of several thousand dollars’ worth of merchandise from a Lululemon store in Minneapolis and then funneling the stolen goods through a suburban nail salon.

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

The criminal complaints filed Thursday say Lululemon investigators found high shoplifting losses at their store in downtown Minneapolis, then identified a suspect through surveillance videos and interviews with store employees. That suspect, who has not been charged, would steal bags off a merchandise rack, fill them with goods and leave without paying.

Investigators placed GPS tracking tags in several bags, and when the individual stole them, tracked her movements. The woman would take the stolen merchandise to Diamond Nails Salon in Crystal, then leave the salon without the bags but holding a “large sum of money in her hand,” the complaint alleged.

When police arrested the shoplifter, she told them she had been directed to steal the clothes by a woman who worked at the salon, who she identified as Van. She said Van would pay her $400 for the clothes and remove the theft sensors, then place the stolen merchandise in a plastic bag and resell it. She estimated she had made at least 100 transactions with Van.

Police later found “numerous white plastic bags of stolen Lululemon merchandise” throughout the defendants’ home, along with anti-theft tags that had been removed, the complaint alleged.

The total value of merchandise stolen from the store was still being tallied, but the complaint said it was “well in excess of $5,000.”

Nguyen’s attorney did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday. Court records did not list an attorney for Van, and she did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.