Nearly $100,000 in stolen lululemon product recovered by Metro Vancouver Transit Police

An arrest on a SkyTrain by Metro Vancouver Transit Police officers in April has led to the recovery of nearly $100,000 worth of stolen lululemon products.

The MVTP said in a statement Thursday that the initial arrest of a 39-year-old Vancouver man at the Metrotown SkyTrain Station came after they had been tipped off to the suspect’s “alleged shoplifting routine, including his dependence on using SkyTrain as his getaway vehicle.”

“During the course of their investigation, and utilizing technology capabilities from lululemon, officers discovered that the suspect was allegedly involved in a large scale, organized theft operation, targeting lululemon stores across the Lower Mainland,” the MVTP said.

“The operation used Facebook Marketplace to sell a large volume of the stolen merchandise to online buyers, meeting them along the SkyTrain system for the exchange.”

In July, police arrested another two people in connection to the theft ring after a home in Burnaby was searched. The 39-year-old and 34-year-old men, both of Burnaby, were charged with trafficking and property obtained by crime.

Police say they seized over 800 lululemon items, with a “retail value of $97,468.” Cash, including over $17,600 in Canadian dollars and $1,700 in U.S. dollars, was also seized.

“We are hopeful that a clear message has been sent to would-be criminals that attempting to conduct criminal activity along the transit system, or using public transit to further their criminal activities, will not be tolerated,” MVTP Const. Amanda Steed said.

“Transit Police is dedicated to bringing anyone who would engage in this behavior to justice. We also ask that the public pause to consider that any high-quality product being sold at a discount rate online by a third party may be stolen.”

Speaking to 1130 NewsRadio, Steed added that while each business has their own policies in place to address shoplifting, there’s “no wrong answer” to what they choose to put in place.

“I know their asset protection team worked really, really hard on identifying this specific suspect in the initial arrest [who] had been responsible for thousands and thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise across the Lower Mainland, and they were able to bring that information to us, and we were able to continue the investigation, which uncovered the larger organized theft ring,” she said.

Steed says police are still actively investigating the theft ring, and don’t currently have a timeline of when the thefts may have started, “but it would take a couple of people not very long to grab a whole bunch of items, and they do it in a manner, what we like to call a grab a run.”

“They would run into the store, and they would grab as much as they could, and then they would leave immediately, and then use the SkyTrain to get away.”

Steed says investigators believe there are more people connected to the series of thefts, and they’re working “really hard to try and discover the identity of more suspects that we believe are involved.”

All the recovered items have since been returned to lululemon, Steed adds.