Three Bay Area men were arrested Thursday and more than $150,000 in merchandise was seized following the investigation of a large retail theft in Reno, the Golden Gate Division of the California Highway Patrol said.
When clothing worth an estimated $50,000 was stolen recently from a Lululemon store in Reno, some of the five suspects were recognized by store loss prevention investigators as repeat offenders with ties to the Bay Area, the CHP said.
The retailer contacted the Organized Retail Crime Task Force, which includes the CHP, the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco District Attorney's Office, which executed search warrants Thursday in San Francisco and Antioch, officials said.
Three suspects were arrested and $150,000 in suspected stolen merchandise, $7,000 cash and a handgun were recovered.
"The recovered merchandise included clothing, cosmetics, purses and sunglasses from multiple retailers including Lululemon, Macy's, Nordstrom, Victoria's Secret, JCPenney, Sunglass Hut, Solstice Sunglasses, Ulta Beauty, Sephora, Burberry, Sax Off 5th, Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Gucci, Channel," and other retailers, the CHP said.
Mario Omar Cisneros-Cruz, 41, of San Francisco; Owen Omar Cisneros-Rodriguez, 19, of San Francisco; and Saul Garcia Hernandez, 28, of Antioch were arrested and booked for organized retail crime, possession of stolen property, grand theft, and theft of lost property, the CHP said. Hernandez was also booked for carrying a loaded firearm.
"It is our task force's mission to detect, deter and dismantle organized retail crime," CHP Lt. Kevin Domby of the ORCTF said in a statement.
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The task force has an organized retail crime tip line at (510) 957-8247.
