A man in California has been arrested for allegedly stealing more than $30,000 worth of Lego by swapping the plastic bricks for dried pasta.
Jarrelle Augustine, 28, was arrested in Irvine in connection with at least 70 Lego thefts at stores across the country. According to Irvine police, Augustine stole approximately $34,000 worth of Lego.
After buying and opening a box, Augustine allegedly replaced the plastic Lego bricks and figures with dried pasta. Investigators told FOX 11 LA that the dried pasta mimics the sound and weight of Lego bricks shifting around when the box is shaken.
“One of the cases that occurred here in Orange County, they shared that they opened the box and instead of Legos, they found bags of dry pasta,” Officer Ziggy Azarcon told CBS News.
He then allegedly returned the boxes to stores and requested refunds. Irvine police claim that Augustine received refunds at Target stores in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Westminster, as well as a number of stores outside of California. Police allege Augustine is also linked to dozens of Lego thefts in Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Florida.
Investigators allegedly found several packages of Lego at Augustine’s apartment after he was taken into custody.
“These were definitely sets that were consistent with what he was purchasing and then returning,” Azarcon said. “These were Star Wars sets and Marvel sets, which have a very high value on the secondary market.”
Augustine is being charged with grand theft, according to police.
The unusual nature of the crime wasn’t lost on Irvine police, which released a pun-laden social media post announcing the charges.
“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine, we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente,” the department said in a social media post.
It also called Augustine’s alleged scheme a “bad build” that “didn’t hold together.”
Last week, three other men — Jose Lopez, 37, Ruben Lopez Flores, 25, and Freddy Hernandez Polinar, 35 — were arrested for allegedly stealing two truck trailers that contained Lego sets, according to NewsNation.
Joshua Hanlon, the owner of Beyond the Brick, a social media group claiming to be the “world’s largest Lego fan community,” told NewsNation there is a sizable market for second-hand Lego sales.
“Particularly Facebook Marketplace, I think, is probably the most popular option these days. You see a lot of these thefts being listed on there. Pretty soon after they take place, they’ll start to try to offload them,” he told the outlet.
He also said that it’s virtually impossible to know whether or not the bricks have been stolen because they do not have serial numbers or other identifying markers on them.
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