MINNEAPOLIS — Two Crystal women have been charged in connection with a robbery scheme at a Lululemon store in Minneapolis that investigators say was thwarted with the help of GPS trackers.
According to the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office, 56-year-old My Hoang Thi Van and 24-year-old Kathy Nguyen are both charged with organized retail theft.
According to the complaint, police were first called to the North Loop store in mid-June for multiple thefts. Detectives quickly linked them to a 28-year-old woman through surveillance camera footage that showed her grabbing shopping bags and filling them with clothing before leaving.
Police placed GPS trackers in several shopping bags, which eventually led to a nail salon in Crystal and a home in Crystal, where Van and Nguyen both live.
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During surveillance, detectives saw the 28-year-old woman enter the salon carrying Lululemon bags before leaving with “a large amount of cash in her hand,” the complaint said.
According to police, Van was also seen leaving the salon carrying “large plastic garbage bags containing items that appeared to be clothing.” He was eventually pulled over, with officers confirming that the bags contained stolen Lululemon items.
The 28-year-old woman, who has not yet been charged, was arrested in late August after another shoplifting incident at the store. The complaint states that she confessed to the crimes, telling police that she had made “at least 100 transactions” with Van, that she would contact her “sometimes daily” for stolen clothing and that she would pay her $400 for salon supplies. Van then allegedly removed the security tags before reselling the items.
When police finally arrested Van, officers allegedly “heard her speaking Vietnamese to someone.” Officers monitoring her home then saw “two females and a male quickly remove several white plastic bags containing merchandise from the residence,” the complaint states.
Nguyen was also arrested, with a complaint that law enforcement wanted to increase her bail. Police say the total amount of stolen property “is well over $5,000,” according to the complaint.
If found guilty, they face up to 15 years in prison.
