Police make huge Lego bust and recover more than $200,000 worth of stolen blocks
Investigators say they witnessed sellers walking out of toy store with cash in hand and discovered more than 4,000 sets
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Oregon police uncovered more than $200,000 worth of stolen Lego sets at a toy store in the city of Eugene earlier this month, following a three-month investigation.
Police accuse Ammon Henrikson, 47, of Springfield, and Albert Nash, 57, of Eugene, of purchasing new, unopened Lego sets that they knew were stolen from other stores.
They’ve been hit with organized retail theft and receiving charges. The Independent has contacted Henrikson and Nash for comment.
During a July 3 search of the Brick Builders toy store, officers found more than 4,153 Lego sets, many of them high-priced collaborations with name brands like Star Wars that can fetch hundreds or thousands of dollars on the resale market, police said.
“We would watch people go into the store with Lego and come out with cash in hand," Springfield police sergeant Kyle Potter told KEZI. “At that point, we would stop people, we’d talk to them and they’d tell us exactly what they did.”
Police said that in the course of their investigation, they partnered with retail stores like Target, Fred Meyer, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart to confirm the sets were originally stolen.
“In several instances, suspects stole hundreds of dollars’ worth of Lego sets and then immediately went to the Brick Builders store to exchange the stolen items for cash: most often at a fraction of their actual retail value,” the department wrote on Facebook. “When interviewed, some suspects advised that Brick Builders’ staff knew the sets had recently been stolen. Officers learned that many of the suspects were utilizing the money they received to buy and use illegal drugs.”
In January, a new state law went into effect with harsher penalties for retail theft convictions.
Last month, two people were arrested in California for allegedly possessing thousands of dollars of stolen Legos.