California Highway Patrol investigators intercepted a shipment of stolen Lululemon leggings worth more than $200,000 in Orange County, officials said Monday.
CHP investigators assigned to a retail crime task force on June 6 found out about three large boxes with Lululemon merchandise that had been shipped from Ohio and was destined for an apartment complex in La Habra.
The investigators delivered the merchandise to the apartment, where they noticed several other boxes.
After getting a search warrant, they searched the home and found a total of 16 boxes, all filled with stolen Lululemon leggings.
There were 1,861 stolen items seized with a retail value of $203,688, according to CHP.
Officials said the merchandise had been stolen from different Lululemon stores throughout the country, including in Ohio, Illinois and Wisconsin.
It was the largest recovery of stolen items in Lululemon’s history, CHP officials said, citing representatives from the company.
“The investigation is on-going, and the apartment residents claimed no knowledge of what the boxes contained,” CHP officials said.
It’s unclear if anyone was taken into custody and no further details were available.
CHP said it has dedicated Organized Retail Theft teams to work with retailers to combat “sophisticated groups that victimize merchants throughout the state.”
Earlier this year, nine people were arrested and $200,000 in stolen merchandise and cash were recovered during an investigation into a criminal retail theft organization in Southern California known as the South American Theft Group.
The group had allegedly been targeting popular retailers throughout the state, including Lululemon, since March 2021, CHP officials said at the time.
The suspects would allegedly steal hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and then ship them internationally, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office.