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.
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.”
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.
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)
