A REALTOR has been accused of stealing $200,000 worth of Lululemon clothing in an elaborate scheme.
While retail crime typically happens on-site, the alleged scammer is charged with defrauding the luxury athletic clothing company through online orders.
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Mark Tilley, 55, from Bradenton, Florida, would allegedly place orders through the Lululemon website using several different credit cards, according to Lululemon’s Organized Retail Crime Investigation group.
He would allegedly often use other people’s names and shipped the orders to different addresses within his Magnolia Estates apartment complex.
Tilley would mainly use the same phone number to get past the retailer’s fraud detection system, arrest docs obtained by WFLA alleged.
The purchases would often link back to an IP address that was allegedly connected to Tilley’s Gmail account.
Investigators said Tilley would update the delivery address of the items to his community leasing office once the shipments were on their way.
He would then later pick the packages up at his office, according to investigators.
Tilley was accused of processing a fast-track return to get his money back.
Once his return package was scanned into a local USPS self-serve kiosk, he would receive an E-gift card credit, the outlet reports.
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However, he allegedly sent Lululemon an empty return box.
He would then reportedly take the clothing that he allegedly stole and return them to storefronts across several states so that he would get double the credit back, according to the outlet.
Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office found that Tilley allegedly defrauded the retailer of $200,000 over a 12-month period.
Tilley has been charged with grand theft of over $100,000.
Lululemon has also been hit with robberies at their brick-and-mortar stores, but these have not been linked to Tilley.
For example, a video circulating on social media showed a group of shoplifters in masks ransacking a Lululemon store in Peachtree Corners, Georgia while workers called out for them to stop.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/8230451/mark-tilley-lululemon-return-clothing-scam/