Twin Cities Women Ran Lululemon Theft Operation: Police

MINNEAPOLIS — Two Crystal, Minnesota roommates are accused of running a theft operation that resulted in more than $5,000 in stolen clothes from Lululemon.

Kathy Nguyen, 24, and My Hoang Thi Van, 56, each face a felony count of organized retail theft. If convicted, they face up to 15 years in prison and a $35,000 fine.

On June 19, Minneapolis Police began investigating a series of organized retail thefts at the Lululemon store location in North Loop.

Surveillance footage showed a woman who would enter Lululemon, steal bags inside the store, and fill them with merchandise before leaving without paying.

Lululemon corporate investigators subsequently placed GPS theft tags in several Lululemon bags.

The woman — who has not been criminally charged — stole bags with the theft tags inside several times, police said. Patch is withholding the woman's identity until charges are filed.

Her thefts created a pattern that allowed investigators to track the stolen merchandise from Lululemon to Diamond Nails Salon in Crystal, authorities said.

The woman would leave the nail salon without any merchandise but occasionally with a large sum of money in hand, according to the criminal complaint.

At one point, a GPS tracker showed the merchandise remained at the salon for several hours before being moved to the 500 block of Bass Lake Road in Crystal, police said.

My Hoan Thi Van, 56, was seen exiting Diamond Nail Salon carrying large plastic garbage bags, police said. The bags were transported to a Bass Lake Road residence where both Van and Kathy Nguyen lived, according to the criminal complaint.

On Aug. 23, police arrested the shoplifter following another theft from Lululemon. The woman told police she stole specific items from Lululemon and sold them to a person identified as Van, according to the criminal complaint.

The woman estimated she had made at least 100 transactions with Van, police said.

Around that same time, Minneapolis Police officers conducting surveillance at the Bass Lake Road address observed two women and a man "quickly removing numerous white plastic bags of merchandise from the residence," according to the criminal complaint.

One of the women was identified by police as Kathy Nguyen, and the man was identified as Nguyen's brother.

Officers found numerous white plastic bags of stolen Lululemon merchandise throughout the residence, according to the criminal complaint.

In a police interview, Van admitted she began buying the clothing items in May and continued for the last 3 months, according to authorities. Van admitted to searching the Lululemon website for specific clothing that she wanted stolen, the criminal complaint states.