Legos are in all places today, together with prison enterprises. Earlier within the week, California’s Organized Retail Crime Taskforce carried out a collection of raids in opposition to an unlawful fencing operation unfold throughout 4 buildings in LA and Orange counties. Throughout these raids, authorities discovered a group of Lego sets estimated to be price $300,000 total.
Varied gadgets had been stolen from fashionable retailers like Goal and Lowe’s, however the Legos had been mentioned to make up the majority of stolen product. In accordance with CBS News, there have been so many containers that they had been lined up throughout the partitions of the buildings, and in some circumstances, had been capable of contact the ceiling. (As an ex-retail employee, lemme inform ya: nightmare situation having to tug from the center part of these stacks.) Lego units can get fairly dear the extra elaborate they’re, and containers can take up lots of area, so it’s simple to picture how packed these buildings should’ve been.
4 arrests had been made in connection to the fencing ring, whose ages vary from 35 to 47 years previous. The suspects had been then charged with organized retail theft, grand theft, and conspiracy to commit a criminal offense. Per the LA Times, the quartet would go from retailer to retailer, with two of them swiping restricted version field units earlier than stashing them throughout their numerous safehouses earlier than promoting them in-person or on-line.
In the event you weren’t conscious, this has truly been occurring for fairly a while. In December 2023, Inside Edition printed a chunk on what’s successfully the Lego black market, whereby thieves stole Legos through the holidays and promote them for a good worth, significantly the restricted version units. A Lego retailer in Las Vegas obtained hit 4 occasions inside a month of opening, and the shop proprietor on the time mentioned $2,000 price of product was stolen.
Comparable theft rings exist for stuff like Magic: The Gathering and Pokémon, so it’s not too stunning to listen to that is occurring with Lego. Some retailers are attempting so as to add some friction to the method, primarily by locking the toys behind a case or wrapping them in a safety bind you need to take away immediately on the register.
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