Police in Northern California are looking for a trio of women who they say walked out of an athletics wear store in Fresno with about $17,000 worth of product. Surveillance video released by police Tuesday shows three women enter a Fresno Lululemon store Sunday afternoon with large totes. The group then made their way toward the store’s popular yoga pants and filled the bags before exiting without incident, KFSN reported.
The group stole about 148 pairs of yoga pants, each costing anywhere between $98 to $148, according to the store’s website. Media outlets initially reported the estimated amount of pants stolen as $10,000, but police later updated that figure to $17,000 on the department’s Facebook page. This isn’t the first time a theft like this has happened; Fresno Police said they believe the women are part of a larger group that has taken over $145,000 in items from Lululemon stores around California, the Fresno Bee reported.
“They believe it’s related to a crew that has hit Lululemon in the Bay Area,” Lt. Joe Gomez of the Fresno Police Department told KFSN. “They had three photos, African American females. They indicated they had been arrested before.” In a similar style of theft, three people also took yoga pants from a Lululemon located in Berkeley on July 20, according to KGO, taking an estimated $10,000 worth of goods.
Employees and other customers shopping at Lululemon at the time were surprised by the sudden theft, and yoga instructor Christine Brown, who was present at the time of the theft, said everyone was “in a daze” after the group walked out. “For me, I was just shocked, and I froze,” Brown said. “I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if there was anything I could do.” Officers said the best plan of action in similar store thefts is to not confront the suspects. (Video Courtesy: Fresno Police) [Source: San Francisco Chronicle]
