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Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals
Some shady personalities are making an unwelcome appearance in the Lego fandom, which is well-known to include children, teenagers, and adult collectors—and for all the wrong reasons.
Lego products, particularly the more expensive sets that cost $1,000 or more, are highly sought after by both lone shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings. This is because the sets, which are displayed on store shelves, can be sold for a healthy profit through both legal and illegal channels.
Lego | CNN Image
Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals
Miguel Zuniga is still coping with the June 18 break-in at his Bricks & Minifigs Lego resale franchise store in Lomita, Los Angeles County.
Around five in the morning on Tuesday, the Lego heist took place.
“The ADT security system called while I was sleeping. My wife then received a call. We were being robbed, so I went directly to the cameras,” Zuniga said to CNN.
Within ten minutes, he arrived at his store, but the robbers had left with an estimated $5,000 to $7,000 worth of Legos.
Retail crime specialists told CNN that Lego sets that have been stolen are easy to resale, usually difficult to track down, and, if they are in immaculate condition and unused, can fetch a price that’s not too far off the original retail price. Even well-maintained old sets might fetch 50% of their original cost.
Several states have had Lego thefts in recent months.
According to CNN affiliate KABC, authorities in California detained two individuals earlier this month in relation to a retail crime ring that reportedly stole thousands of Lego toys from multiple Southern California businesses.
According to a police statement cited in the story, more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys, each with a retail value ranging from $20 to over $1,000, were found by LAPD detectives.
Police in Philadelphia have recorded several Lego set thefts in the last several months from stores like Barnes & Noble and Target; the stolen sets have been valued anywhere from $250 to $1,000 per. Target informed CNN that it was unable to provide any information regarding Lego thefts at its locations. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Barnes & Noble.
Additionally, police in Richmond, British Columbia, just north of the border, found and confiscated more than a thousand pilfered toys in March. Lego sets and other soft toys valued at over $150,000 were among the pilfered items.
Among the most often taken goods
Lego sets are frequently in the top 10 most stolen retail products, along with branded jeans, purses, designer shoes, Olay skincare products, and Apple devices, according to experts, despite the difficulty in obtaining reliable statistics.
“Lego is different. Read Hayes, director of the Loss Prevention Research Council, which has Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and Gap as members, and a criminologist at the University of Florida, said, “The brand is always refreshing their offerings, always on trend with tie-ins to pop culture and special edition sets.”
Hayes told CNN that his company collaborates with most stores who sell Lego merchandise in addition to Legoland theme parks. “There is always a demand.”
Lego | CNN image
Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals
Because of this, there is a growing market for counterfeit goods, particularly on the internet, in addition to the market for stolen Lego products.
Lego violations are nothing new to Wichita, Kansas, police captain Casey Slaughter, who oversees the department’s property crimes section.
Slaughter told CNN, “We see Lego toys as one of the more frequently stolen items in our area.” “Lego theft can happen to any retailer selling the brand, but there are also a few secondhand stores that specialize in Lego that have emerged as resellers.” They are under attack.
Lego thieves find it easy money, he claimed. He claimed that it was hard to find out where they were taken from.
Wichita Police looked into 19 Lego thefts between January 8, 2024, and May 7, 2024, according to information the police agency sent CNN. The information showed that among the stolen items were sets from the Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, and Star Wars movies.
When contacted for comment, Lego referred CNN to online tools on its website to teach customers how to recognize phony Lego products and online businesses.
Since April, a number of Bricks & Minifigs locations in California have experienced thefts.
“This is most likely our fourth or fifth Lego-themed hit. Regarding the heist of Zuniga’s store, Captain Calvin Mah of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s major crimes section stated in an interview with CNN that “they happen quickly, 30 seconds to a minute.”
“I could see that they were aiming for particular Lego pieces when I watched the security footage. They had a clear idea of what they wanted. They were looking for the uncommon or collectible sets, the high-end and high-value ones, he claimed.
Lego | CNN Image
Shoplifters Love Lego. The Colorful Plastic Toy Bricks Are A Gold Mine For Criminals
When Zuniga told CNN about the robbery, she became tearful.
On the day of the break-in, Zuniga cleaned his store and then went home to take a shower.
He remarked, “I sent a bat signal to the community when I came back to come and support us in our time of need.” Consumers arrived; some even gave away their Lego sets. To stock empty shelves, he purchased Lego kits that were marked down at the neighborhood Target.
“The first customer that came in at nine in the morning was a 71-year-old who had built some of the most expensive Lego sets,” Zuniga recalled, sobbing uncontrollably. He’s a legend in our community. He arrived crying.
SOURCE – (CNN)
Business groups are urging Justin Trudeau’s government to stop labor unrest at Canada’s main ports, as it did with railways in August, to avoid supply chain disruptions.
Hundreds of dock foremen in British Columbia ports have been on strike for a week. On Sunday, employers at Montreal’s port locked out 1,200 unionized workers after they rejected a contract offer that promised a 20% salary raise over six years.
Businesses report that the work disruptions are harming ports that handle approximately C$1.2 billion ($860 million) of products daily. They want Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to refer the case to the Canada Industrial Relations Board, which can send the parties to arbitration to settle the disagreement.
He used that technique over two months ago to halt labor stoppages at Canada’s two main railways. However, the government’s use has sparked resentment among some unions.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has filed a court challenge, claiming that the government’s actions in the railway conflict set a dangerous precedent by breaching workers’ constitutional rights.
Soon after, the pro-union New Democratic Party ripped up a legislative arrangement in which it committed to vote with Trudeau’s Liberals to advance critical legislation.
It’s unclear whether the government currently has enough support to enact a back-to-work law, which would be required to end the port issue.
According to Michel Murray, a Montreal Longshoremen’s Union representative, the port employers “act as bullies,” and refusing to talk indicates that “they clearly want the federal government to intervene.”
“Nearly C$6 billion worth of goods are expected to arrive at the port over the next two weeks,” Michel Leblanc, CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal, said in a statement. “The urgency is real.”
Goldy Hyder, CEO of the Business Council of Canada, stated that the conflicts “continue to weaken Canada’s economy and tarnish its reputation as a reliable trading partner.”
“Canada’s ports will continue to lose market share if the country’s reputation for labor instability is not corrected soon,” Hyder wrote in a letter to MacKinnon and Transport Minister Anita Anand on November 9.
According to a group of port employers, the Montreal offer would have increased the average dockworker’s pay by more than C$200,000 annually.
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(VOR News) – Amazon has verified that employee data was stolen to the extent that it was compromised as a result of a “security event” that took place at a third-party vendor. The event brought about the compromise of data.
According to a statement that was provided to TechCrunch on Monday, the information that pertains to Amazon employees was revealed as a result of a data breach. This information related to Amazon employees was disclosed.
Amazon spokesman Adam Montgomery issued the statement.
When it comes to Amazon’s or Amazon Web Services (AWS) systems, there have been no security breaches that have taken place, and we have not encountered any security problems. An incident that occurred at one of our property management providers and included security was brought to our attention over the course of the investigation.
This problem had an effect on a number of the company’s customers, including Amazon, and we were informed about it. Other customers were also affected. Montgomery asserts that the only information that was disclosed was that of the work contact information of Amazon workers. As far as Montgomery is concerned, there was no further breach of security.
Among the things that were listed in this category were things like work email addresses, desk phone numbers, and the locations of buildings.
The number of employees who were affected by the security vulnerability has not been acknowledged by Amazon, nor has the total number of employees who were affected been released.
Additionally, it was stated that the third-party vendor, which was not named, does not have access to sensitive data such as Social Security numbers or financial information. This information was described as being kept confidential. The information in question was not made public. The vendor has reportedly fixed the security flaw that was responsible for the data breach that took place, according to reports that were received.
Hackers said they posted Amazon data on Breach Forums. It has been determined that the information in question is accurate as a consequence of this declaration. Additionally, the individual alleges that they have more than 2.8 million lines of data, which they allege was stolen during the mass-exploitation of MOVEit Transfer that took place the previous year.
Using the alias “Nam3L3ss,” the threat actor claims that they have disclosed information that was purportedly taken from twenty-five big corporations, as indicated in a study that was carried out by the cybersecurity company Hudson Rock. The analysis was done by Hudson Rock.
The assumption that the threat actor makes is that “the data that you have seen up to this point is less than .001% of the total data that I possess.”
This is the Amazon assertion that they make.
The public will have access to one thousand releases that have never been seen before in the history of record releases. The journal TechCrunch has attempted to get in touch with the other firms that were identified by the threat actor; however, the magazine has not yet received any additional responses to the inquiries that it has made.
It was the MOVEit breach, which took place in 2023, that was the most catastrophic breach that ever took place. The file-transfer software that was developed by Progress Software was vulnerable to a zero-day vulnerability, which allowed attackers to take advantage of the weakness and cause this breach.
More than one thousand businesses were impacted by these incursions, and it is believed that the notorious Clop ransomware and extortion ring was responsible for them. Through the utilization of ransomware, hacks were successfully carried out.
Not only did the data breach affect the Oregon Department of Transportation, which had 3.5 million pieces of information stolen, but it also affected the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which had four million pieces of information stolen, and Maximus, which is a giant in the United States government services contracting market, which had 11 million pieces of information stolen.
SOURCE: TC
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(VOR News) – The following day, Bitcoin achieved a new record high as a consequence of traders’ wagers on the potential benefits of Donald Trump’s return to the White House for the cryptocurrency.
This was an additional factor contributing to Bitcoin’s recent record-breaking performance.
This resulted in Bitcoin’s first-ever record-breaking high.
The digital currency’s inaugural transaction, valued at eighty thousand dollars, was executed one hundred twenty minutes after twelve o’clock in the afternoon (1200 GMT). This occurred shortly after the timepiece reached twelve.
The conviction that President Trump may reduce laws on digital currencies has increased as a result of his victory in the presidential election that occurred in the United States on Tuesday. This conviction has been bolstered by his election victory. Since the election was won by the Republican nominee, Trump, this mentality has been gradually cultivated.
On Wednesday, the price of bitcoin achieved a new all-time high of $75,000, surpassing the previous all-time high of $73,797.98, which was achieved in March. This item has attained the highest price to date.
It was widely believed that Trump was the politician who embraced Bitcoin during his campaign against Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party candidate. Harris was a candidate for the Democratic Party in the Senate campaign.
Donald Trump employed the term “hoax” to describe cryptocurrencies during his inaugural tenure as president of the United States. However, in the time that has passed since then, he has experienced a substantial change in his viewpoints, which has even resulted in the creation of his own committee platform.
In addition to his pledge to establish the United States of America as the “bitcoin and cryptocurrency capital of the world,” he has also committed to appointing Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur and right-wing conspiracy theorist, to the role of overseeing a comprehensive investigation into the government’s wasteful practices.
Both of these commitments are components of his strategy to enhance the prosperity of the United States of America. It is crucial to acknowledge that he has made a commitment to both of these.
The administration of President Trump was responsible for the reduction of corporation taxes, which resulted in an increase in market liquidity and facilitated the investment in high-growth assets, such as cryptocurrencies. Through the administration of President Trump’s predecessor, this was accomplished.
The previous administration benefited from a decrease in the tax rate for Bitcoin companies.
In September, President Trump announced that he, his sons, and other organizations would be creating a digital currency platform known as World Liberty Financial. The development of this platform would also incorporate the participation of other businesses. The network would facilitate the conversion of digital currency into corporeal currency.
Nevertheless, it experienced an unsuccessful sales launch earlier this month, with only a small percentage of the tokens that were placed on the market being purchased by consumers. This incident transpired earlier this month. From this, it is possible to infer that the launch was unsuccessful.
Cryptocurrencies have been the subject of numerous news articles since their inception. The FTX exchange platform is the most notable of the numerous industry stalwarts that have fallen, and these stories have covered a wide variety of subjects, including the immense volatility of their pricing. Numerous topics have been addressed in these narratives.
According to reports that circulated in the days preceding the election, he made history by becoming the first former president to utilize bitcoin to conduct a transaction. Donald Trump achieved historical significance by conducting a transaction using bitcoin. This could be considered a significant accomplishment.
He accomplished this by purchasing hamburgers from a restaurant in New York City, which characterized the transaction as “historic.” He succeeded in achieving these objectives. Because of this opportunity, he capitalized on it.
Bitcoin, a digital currency, is transacted on the market every day of the week, including Sundays.
SOURCE: TET
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