Four women steal up to $19,000 worth of workout clothes from Santa Rosa Lululemon store

Four women skipped the “smash” but made a big grab Wednesday morning at the Lululemon store in Montgomery Village, stealing as much as $19,000 in workout clothing before making a getaway in a black Mercedes.

Santa Rosa police are searching for the four women suspected in the brazen daytime robbery.

The women entered the store at about 11:04 a.m., shortly after employees opened the shop for the day. The group was described as black women in their early 20s wearing red and black hooded sweatshirts. Store employees did not see any weapons, Santa Rosa Police Officer Travis Menke said.

“They went directly to the back of the store and started filling bags with store merchandise,” Menke said of the four. A pair of leggings from the Canadian- based company sells for between $70 and almost $170, the Lululemon website shows. A parka listed online costs almost $400.

The women exited the store and ran across Farmers Lane into a nearby neighborhood to a parked vehicle on Midway Drive with their haul: an estimated $17,000 to $19,000 worth of merchandise, Sgt. Jeneane Kucker said.

Witnesses last saw them get into an older model black Mercedes with no front license plate and drive in reverse westbound on Midway Drive toward Shortt Road.

Police checked the area but did not find the suspects.

The women remain on the loose.

Paul Van Peborgh, a manager at the Hallmark store across from Lululemon, was surprised the robbery took place there.

In the decade he’s worked at the store, he’s not heard of a similar crime at the upscale shopping center.

Counterfeit money is a more common occurrence, he said.

You can reach Staff Writer Nashelly Chavez at 707-521-5203 or nashelly.chavez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nashellytweets.