Giant Lego theft ring busted in Oregon with roughly $200K in stolen sets seized
Cops really pieced this case together.
A massive Lego theft ring was busted by Oregon police — who took jaw-dropping drone footage of mountains of the colorful toys packed neatly in their boxes from above.
More than 4,150 swiped sets of the plastic building-blocks — valued at roughly $200,000 — were seized from the Brick Builders shop in Eugene, the Springfield Police Department said Tuesday.
Ammon Henrikson, owner of the Lego-centric toy shop, is accused of knowingly buying the unopened sets from crooks who pilfered them from nearby chain stores such as Target, Fred Meyer and Walmart, according to cops.
Henrikson may have even been instructing the suspects to snatch specific Lego sets from the retail stores, a police source told kezi.com.
Among the stolen items could be seen high-quality branded sets with kits for things such as the souped-up DeLorean car from “Back to the Future,” the custom ambulance from “Ghostbusters” — which goes for as much as $230 — and the Millenium Falcon from “Star Wars.”
During the three-month investigation, cops saw thieves rob stores of high-priced Lego sets — then head straight to Brick Builders, police said.
“We would watch people go into the store with Lego and come out with cash in hand,” Sergeant Kyle Potter told the station. “At that point we would stop people, we’d talk to them and they’d tell us exactly what they did.”
Lego lifters were quick to dish about the scheme because “they were usually disgruntled on the amount of cash they got,” Potter said.
“It was pennies on the dollars for what it was actually worth!” he said.
Many of the suspects immediately spent the cash on illegal drugs, according to cops.
Dramatic drone footage shows boxes of the toys, including expensive race car sets, stacked more than five feet high and stretching dozens of feet outside of the police department.
Henrikson and his partner Albert Nash were charged with organized retail theft on July 3.