Retail theft ringleader recruited addicts in homeless shelters to steal: Cook Co. Sheriff's Police

COOK COUNTY, Ill. (WLS) -- A major bust by investigators uncovered a multistate crime organization they say started in Chicago. The Cook County Sheriff's Office tells the ABC7 I-Team the ringleader, a 42-year-old woman, recruited drug addicts in area shelters to steal merchandise.

"In this case, we got individuals running inside a Lululemon taking $40,000 worth of merchandise from a grab and run and return it the next day to a different Lululemon for gift cards," Cook County Sheriff's Office Police Commander, Mike Ware, told the I-Team.

Commander Ware says all of the Lululemon items are just a fraction of what was discovered as part of an organized retail theft ring spearheaded by Roise Spencer.

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"We did a little bit of investigation and some surveillance work, and we uncovered during that work in our investigation that this crew was involved in multiple return frauds over $100,000, not only Lululemon, Walmart, Kohl's, and Target," said Ware.

Spencer was arrested last week and charged, part of a law enforcement blitz in Chicago and across the country aimed at cracking down on retail crime. Ware tells the I-Team they were alerted to the fraudulent returns by Lululemon loss prevention staff.

"They called us, and it's consistent communication, information sharing, it makes us successful," said Ware.

Sheriff's Police tell the I-Team Spencer and her crew operated a multi-state theft ring that spanned Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. Investigators say Spencer would recruit addicts in homeless shelters and pay them with drugs or gift cards.

"She played on addiction. She sought out individuals who were addicted to drugs and narcotics, and that's how she recruited, and used them to go inside the stores, and that's how she paid them off," said Ware.

He says after a search of a storage locker, they found even more merchandise stolen by Spencer worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The National Retail Theft Blitz netted Spencer and 84 other arrests in Chicago. Sheriff's Police also recovered a truck full of stolen supplements, still boxed up.

"Was able to set up an operation plan to to tackle all the retail theft from Michigan and State, which allowed us to make this arrest, and we recovered a trailer worth $96,000 worth of stolen supplements, health supplements, and we got a lot of leads last week," Commander Ware told the I-Team.

Spencer is being held in the Cook County Jail on an unrelated warrant and is back in court on August 24.