Chicago police use hidden GPS to catch Lululemon theft suspects

Hidden location devices tucked into stolen Lululemon clothing helped investigators track a West Loop theft from the store at 932 West Randolph Street to the 9700 block of South Merrill Avenue in South Deering, where two women were detained and about $4,000 in merchandise was recovered from a vehicle.

Surveillance cameras caught the pair entering the store on June 12, 2026, gathering armloads of bright pink and white apparel and leaving without paying. Store personnel alerted the Cook County Sheriff’s Office retail theft team, which followed the concealed devices to the South Deering block. Prosecutors charged 22-year-old Jamyah Smith with felony retail theft and 19-year-old Gyliah Johnson with felony retail theft and criminal trespass to property. Johnson was also accused of violating an order barring her from Lululemon stores. The driver of the vehicle was released without charges after further investigation.

For Lululemon educators and leaders, the significance is less about the arrest count than the way the recovery unfolded. Hidden tracking devices can reduce the need for store staff to confront suspected thieves in the sales floor or in the parking lot, a point that matters in a brand environment built around service, speed, and constant product handling. In a store where new drops, colorways, and inventory turns can already strain the floor team, a theft that is traceable after the fact can shift the burden away from frontline employees and toward investigators.

The case also fits a pattern Cook County prosecutors have been building around repeated thefts from Lululemon locations. In a June 2024 case, a shoplifting crew was accused of hitting five Lululemon stores in under 90 minutes and stealing $17,374 in merchandise. In March 2026, two men were accused of taking more than $9,000 from another West Loop Lululemon store. Those cases have put the chain squarely inside the county’s retail-crime crackdown, where store losses can quickly become felony cases under Illinois law.

Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke changed felony retail-theft charging policy on her first day in office to follow state law when stolen goods exceed $300 or the offender already has a felony shoplifting conviction. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul created the Illinois Organized Retail Crime Task Force in 2021, citing cross-county and cross-state theft rings. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart has said technology and data helped recover more than $5 million in stolen goods over the past two years, a figure that shows why retailers are embedding tracking devices in merchandise and why store teams are being asked to operate in a tighter, more security-conscious version of the Lululemon floor.