Four women arrested, nearly $15k in stolen goods seized after coordinated retail thefts in Douglas County

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – The Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) said four people are now in custody linked to a coordinated retail theft effort involving nearly $15,000 in stolen merchandise.

According to DCSO, at around 3 p.m. on June 18, deputies responded to a report of a theft in progress at a grocery store on South Quebec Street in Highlands Ranch.

The sheriff's office said the theft involved four female suspects – two adults and two juveniles – who were connected to another felony theft that had just occurred at a separate grocery store in Centennial.

When deputies arrived, they detained the driver of a minivan in the parking lot and found three other female suspects inside the Highlands Ranch King Soopers, DCSO said.

Investigators now believe that the women were working in a coordinated effort, with the driver, 37-year-old Gabi Maria Lautaru, acting as a lookout and alerting the other suspects inside the store.

It prompted the three to abandon the stolen merchandise in the store (seen below) before law enforcement could catch them.

DCSO said deputies recovered $9,600 worth of stolen merchandise from the Highlands Ranch location. A search of the suspects’ vehicle uncovered an additional $5,000 in goods, believed to be connected to an earlier theft in Centennial – bringing the total value of recovered items to approximately $14,600.

The two adults were taken into custody and booked into the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Jail, the sheriff's office said. Meanwhile, the two juvenile suspects were transported to the Foote Youth Services Center.

All four suspects are facing charges of theft and conspiracy. The driver is also facing a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

“Thanks to the vigilance of our local retailers and their willingness to report suspicious activity, we were able to identify and arrest this group responsible for stealing thousands of dollars in merchandise," DCSO Sheriff Dan Weekly said in a social media post. "We recently asked our business community to speak up, and this case proves that Douglas County will respond! These arrests are the direct result of that partnership.”

The theft investigation remains ongoing, the sheriff's office said.

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