Los Angeles residents can rest easy knowing that a criminal ring isn’t any longer stalking the town’s retail stores to feed the Lego black market. That’s since the California Highway Patrol (CHP) announced this week that it had arrested four people accused of stealing Lego sets value, police estimate, “approximately $300,000.”
The four allegedly robbed Lego stores equivalent to Target, Home Depot and Lowe’s and sold them to black market dealers, who then sold the stolen bricks at “apparently legitimate businesses, swap meets or on the Internet.” Police say they’ve been charged with “organized retail theft, grand larceny and conspiracy to commit a crime.”
Dark Vador too. Photo: California Highway Patrol
The CHP posted photos of the bust on Instagram. The stolen sets included the 85-921-piece Millennium Falcon (versus 2017’s 7,000-plus-piece, 800-piece colossus), the $6,167 Lord of the Rings Rivendell Castle for $500, and the $1,458 Porsche 911 set for $170.
Rivendell, the last cozy home. Photo: California Highway Patrol
Like every other collectible, Lego sets are the major focus. In 2021, French police announced that they were investigating a world criminal network related to Lego. That same yr, Seattle authorities arrested a store owner accused of selling stolen Lego sets following the clumsily named investigation “Operation: MandalOrganized Retail Theft,” as NBC News reported.
Credit : www.theverge.com
