Shoplifters love Lego. The colorful plastic toy bricks are a goldmine for criminals

Channel 3000 News/CNN ^ | June 30, 2024 | CNN Staff

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Lego’s fanbase, which famously cuts across kids, teenagers and grownup collectors, is seeing some unsavory characters break into the mix, and for all the wrong reasons.

Lego products, especially the pricier sets that range from over $100 to $1,000 or more, are being targeted for theft both by individual shoplifters and larger organized retail crime rings who make a beeline for sets sitting on store shelves because they can fetch a good profit at resale both in legal and illegal channels.

Miguel Zuniga, who operates a Bricks & Minifigs Lego resale franchise store in Lumita, Los Angeles County, is still dealing with a break-in on June 18.

The Lego heist happened around 5 am that Tuesday morning.

“I was asleep, and the ADT security system gave me a call. Then my wife got a call. I went straight to the cameras and saw we were being robbed,” Zuniga told CNN.

He got to his store within 10 minutes, but the burglars were gone – with about $5,000 to $7,000 of Legos, he estimates.

Retail crime experts told CNN that stolen Lego sets are easy to resell, they’re typically hard to trace and they can fetch close to the original retail price if in mint condition and unused. Even used sets in decent shape can go for 50% of the original price.

In recent months, robbers have stolen Legos in several states.

Earlier this month, police in California arrested two people in connection with a retail theft ring that allegedly stole thousands of Lego toys from several Southern California retailers, according to CNN affiliate KABC.

LAPD detectives recovered more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys with retail value of $20 to over $1,000 per item, the report quoted a police statement as saying.

[Tired of Taxes]

Reminds me of this photo during the riots. It always makes me chuckle. In the midst of chaos, one LEGO fan seizes an opportunity:

[HartleyMBaldwin]

You’re fortunate. I was traveling light throughout my twenties, and my parents moved during that time, so lots of my childhood stuff went away then. Oh, well, it’s not as if I haven’t accumulated plenty of junk since then, but I still miss some of the old things, like my fleet of all-steel Tonka toys. I’m too creaky to get down and play in the dirt now, anyway.