Charges: Women ran Lululemon theft ring from nail salon

Two women have been charged with running a Lululemon theft ring from a Twin Cities nail salon, which netted them more than $5,000 worth of merchandise.

My Hoang Thi Van, 55, of Minneapolis, and Kathy Nguyen, 24, of Crystal, were charged on Thursday with organized retail theft after being involved in a series of heists from Lululemon.

According to the complaint, police became aware of the string of thefts on June 19. They identified Sharmaine Hawes, 27, as part of at least nine separate burglaries from a Lululemon store on 3rd Avenue North in Minneapolis.

Hawes allegedly stole bags, put more stolen items in them, and left the store without paying. GPS theft tags in the bags showed her bringing the items to Diamond Nails Salon in Crystal, before leaving with a large sum of money

GPS then showed the clothes were moved to a home on the 500 block of Bass Lake Road in Crystal, where both Van and Nguyen lived.

Hawes was taken into custody on August 23. During police interrogation, she confirmed that Van would send her pictures of what to steal and then bring them to her for Van to resell, paying Hawes $400 for the stolen items.

After getting search warrants for the nail salon, home, and Van's car, Van was taken into custody. Once at the jail, she spoke Vietnamese over the phone to someone. When police arrived at the home, they found Nguyen and others quickly removing multiple white plastic bags of stolen merchandise.

Multiple bags were found throughout the house, and Van admitted to organizing several thefts since May.

According to the complaint, the stolen merchandise "far exceeds" $5,000.

Both Nguyen and Van have their first court appearances on Friday. Nguyen has a $50,000 bail, while Van's bail has been set at $70,000.

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