A Lego theft ring in California has been thwarted, and while it doesn’t sound like a serious crime, it is. Stolen toys can add up to big bucks.
When California detectives raided a Lake County home, they walked into something straight out of a crime thriller—except the victims were Lego minifigures. Robert Lopez allegedly ran an organized theft operation where he directed people to steal high-end Lego sets from Target and Walmart, then meticulously sorted thousands of stolen pieces. Police found minifigure heads organized by facial expression, tens of thousands of loose bricks, and over $6,000 worth of stolen merchandise. Here’s why Lego theft has become such a big problem in California.
Organized crime involving Legos seems odd, but it’s happened
Recently, a search warrant of Robert Lopez’s home led to a Lego-related arrest of the man. Based on police findings in his home, it was pretty clear that he had been involved in organized retail theft of Legos for a long time. His home was filled with stolen Lego minifigures and sets that had been either opened, sorted, and cataloged or were waiting to be opened and processed. This Santa Rosa police Lego bust might put a smile on the faces of some people, but it’s still a crime and one that has escalated thanks to the potential value of the merchandise in the home.
How was this Lego theft ring in California operating?
The California Lego crime had to be ongoing for years, or at least several months, for Lopez to have organized such a collection of the pieces from various sets. Authorities have learned that Lopez was working with local retail criminals to have Lego sets stolen from Target and Walmart. He would pay the thieves a small amount for the sets and then resell them at a much higher price. In many cases, he would push prices beyond the Lego resale market value, especially if the thieves brought him high-demand collectible items or sets. Some of what the police found can be described as strange or even creepy.
Headless Lego figurines make sense; sort of
The entire home was filled with Legos in various forms of processing, which shows how organized this Lego theft ring is in California. It seems the Lopez home was the center of the activity, with the living room filled with tubs, bins, and a desk covered in loose Lego pieces. Several unopened boxes of new Lego sets were found throughout the home. The strangest site was in the kitchen, where disassembled Lego minifigures were found, with heads that had been separated from their bodies. The small yellow heads were all sorted by facial expression, which shows an organized method of operation.
Legos are easy to steal
Most people might not think the large Lego sets are easy to take from a retail store, but that’s thinking too small. Lego sets are highly sought after and can be one of the most expensive toy items sold. They are also pretty easy to conceal because they can’t be detected on scanners. This makes it possible for thieves to conceal them in packaging of cheaper items, underneath objects on a cart, or for smaller sets, in their pockets. The stores selling Lego sets don’t have adequate security to stop most thieves from taking these sets out of their stores.
The Lego theft ring in California involves more than Legos
As you might expect from the ringleader of any criminal enterprise, police found guns at the scene. Despite this criminal ring’s focus on toys, which are meant to make children of all ages happy, protecting the organization seemed to be part of the thought process. Police found two guns in a safe; one was a pump-action pistol grip shotgun with a collapsible stock that was loaded with a drum-style magazine, and the other was an assault rifle with a loaded high-capacity magazine. A third gun, a loaded handgun, was found in Lopez’s bedroom dresser.
While finding guns isn’t a surprise, and many people legally own guns, Lopez was prohibited from owning them due to a prior criminal conviction.
Lopez was arrested and booked into Sonoma County jail, and many charges were brought against him. As strange as a Lego theft ring in California sounds, the ring was real, and Lopez was at the center of it. Authorities continue to work to identify additional suspects involved in the crimes and identify the retail stores from which the Lego sets were stolen.
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