Police Break up Lego Trafficking Operation

[Mark Twain]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/22/seattle-lego-trafficking-baby-yoda/

 

[Voltron]

I've always had suspicions about some ebay / bricklink stores who had lots of new sets / minifigures at crazy low prices under cutting everyone else, always wondered how they were making profit. Could be a logical explanation, rather than people stealing sets and parting the expensive stuff out.

[cladner]

43 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/22/seattle-lego-trafficking-baby-yoda/

 

seems small potatoes $10K of lego?   anything for a story these days.  pathetic small amount of sets if you ask me in their glory photo.  i wonder how much detective time was spent on this - prolly more than $10k but washingpost is owned by amazon so it makes sense.

[iahawks550]

13 hours ago, cladner said:

i wonder how much detective time was spent on this - prolly more than $10k but washingpost is owned by amazon so it makes sense.

It's a unique story that gets clicks. Not really sure what your take is on detectives salary and amount spent on it. Do you want this stuff ignored by law enforcement?

Regardless, my guess is 99% of facebook marketplace new Lego is stolen. Usually involves a photo of the set in someone's car.

[cladner]

1 hour ago, iahawks550 said:

It's a unique story that gets clicks. Not really sure what your take is on detectives salary and amount spent on it. Do you want this stuff ignored by law enforcement?

Regardless, my guess is 99% of facebook marketplace new Lego is stolen. Usually involves a photo of the set in someone's car.

i read the article.  So you resell lego online, therefore you must be a criminal.

just over 40% of us homicides go unsolved every year.  maybe that would be a good place to start with detective work instead of making an operation out of a small time hood who scammed about as much lego as i sell black friday - cybermonday.

the upshot of these stories is next time you go to make a private craigstlist or offerup, facebook mp sale you pull up to the meeting location and their is a police cruiser asking to see your invoice on the parisian restaurant you are selling to make sure you aren't fencing stolen goods.

 

 

 

[BrickLover80]

3 minutes ago, cladner said:

i read the article.  So you resell lego online, therefore you must be a criminal.

just over 40% of us homicides go unsolved every year.  maybe that would be a good place to start with detective work instead of making an operation out of a small time hood who scammed about as much lego as i sell black friday - cybermonday.

the upshot of these stories is next time you go to make a private craigstlist or offerup, facebook mp sale you pull up to the meeting location and their is a police cruiser asking to see your invoice on the parisian restaurant you are selling to make sure you aren't fencing stolen goods.

 

 

 

The way I read the story, this was a bigger operation that warranted some police work. The 10k figure was one of the guys but there were several people working for thus guy. Other times, people complain that the police doesn't care about shop lifting. Although I agree that this should be a local news story, not national media. But as was said above, this one is good for clicks.

Having said that, the US needs more (or better) policing. Relative to the rest of the world, we overspend on prisons and understand on police. And if we spend on police, we buy military grade equipment because that's subsidized by the federal government and not on police officers on the ground. 

[iahawks550]

13 minutes ago, cladner said:

i read the article.  So you resell lego online, therefore you must be a criminal.

just over 40% of us homicides go unsolved every year.  maybe that would be a good place to start with detective work instead of making an operation out of a small time hood who scammed about as much lego as i sell black friday - cybermonday.

the upshot of these stories is next time you go to make a private craigstlist or offerup, facebook mp sale you pull up to the meeting location and their is a police cruiser asking to see your invoice on the parisian restaurant you are selling to make sure you aren't fencing stolen goods.

 

 

 

I read the article also. Never once did I come to the conclusion of your first sentence. Your last paragraph is also just as bad. This guy owned a re-sale shop and hired thieves to steal for him. That's an organized crime ring. 

Also, this investigation started because of other complaints. Not a simple online/meet up purchase. 

What dollar amount is needed before police investigate? 100k?1 million? 

 

[Shortbus311]

seems small potatoes $10K of lego?   anything for a story these days.  pathetic small amount of sets if you ask me in their glory photo.  i wonder how much detective time was spent on this - prolly more than $10k but washingpost is owned by amazon so it makes sense.

Sorry, but this hot take on this article seems a bit off to me. So you are saying that if someone stole $10k from you and you knew who did it and had proof that it was them and took that truth to the police that you would expect them to do nothing about it because it is such a small amount in the grand scheme of things? Doesn't matter that without police intervention that they would continue to steal from you right? So over the course of another few months it could be another $10k that they steal from you... but I guess all that is ok because there are unsolved murders.

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[gmpirate]

These crime rings are growing.  I believe the figure is around $950 that someone can steal without consequence.  So groups go out and steal being sure not to individually steal more than that.

[chinothegeeko]

I mean cmon it’s scary.


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[Gonkalin]

I save digital copies of all my receipts both physical and online for this exact reason…just in case. And for tax reasons as well. 
 

and I too wonder how some people sell new (not retired) sets for so cheap if they are not stolen. You gotta assume that in most cases if you’re selling a new Lego set for 30% less than retail it must be hot. With the exception of a few sets that get 50% discounts which could be flipped for small profit (which are not many) 

Edited October 23, 2021 by Gonkalin

[Mark Twain]

I shared the article because I thought it was hilarious while also dealing with a serious issue. I mean they used Grogu as bait, who could resist!

On the serious side, I don’t know how much crap is stolen and moved through the marketplaces, but I often wonder when I see a post on OfferUp or FB marketplace that shows the product in the passenger seat or propped on the dash and some that even have the spider wiring attached.

My inclination is to think that B&M and online businesses are losing product to theft at much higher rates than they’d like to admit and struggle to keep track with the labor shortages. I think it’s complicated—yea, there’s brazen dudes who just walk out the door with a cartful of products or snipe packages from porches , but there’s also the product lost at the self checkout kiosks that people just miss and don’t scan. I imagine a ton of stock is lost to inadvertent theft like that and isn’t categorized as such.


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[minicoopers11]

38 minutes ago, Mark Twain said:

I shared the article because I thought it was hilarious while also dealing with a serious issue. I mean they used Grogu as bait, who could resist!

On the serious side, I don’t know how much crap is stolen and moved through the marketplaces, but I often wonder when I see a post on OfferUp or FB marketplace that shows the product in the passenger seat or propped on the dash and some that even have the spider wiring attached.

My inclination is to think that B&M and online businesses are losing product to theft at much higher rates than they’d like to admit and struggle to keep track with the labor shortages. I think it’s complicated—yea, there’s brazen dudes who just walk out the door with a cartful of products or snipe packages from porches , but there’s also the product lost at the self checkout kiosks that people just miss and don’t scan. I imagine a ton of stock is lost to inadvertent theft like that and isn’t categorized as such.


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I've definitely encountered theft rings in the Seattle area. Same seller/theft ring would post on craigslist with very good [too good to be true, since they're not the store clearancing] offers and a different [burner] phone number on each post. They justified by saying they had an inside LEGO connection, but after two or three transactions, it became obvious what it was and I stayed away. And this was several years ago. Organized theft rings are not a new concept.

Edited October 23, 2021 by minicoopers11

[BrickStanley74]

I had 30-40k worth of sets stolen from my old house a couple of years ago. Spent months trying to track down any leads or any sign of them being re-sold on all the usual places. Filed several Police reports at the time also, but they didn't care one bit. Had bigger fish to fry I guess. 

Too bad my neighbor wasn't Bezos

Edited October 24, 2021 by BrickStanley74

[Phil B]

Theft or "theft" .... both can explain the low FB Marketplace offers ... 

 

[Pseudoty]

5 minutes ago, Phil B said:

Theft or "theft" .... both can explain the low FB Marketplace offers ... 

 

Or THEFT; he ordered a Mandalorian Starfighter and got yet another Tumbler  

[Bricklectic]

10 hours ago, BrickStanley74 said:

I had 30-40k worth of sets stolen from my old house a couple of years ago. Spent months trying to track down any leads or any sign of them being re-sold on all the usual places. Filed several Police reports at the time also, but they didn't care one bit. Had bigger fish to fry I guess. 

Too bad my neighbor wasn't Bezos

insurance?

[iahawks550]

11 minutes ago, Bricklectic said:

insurance?

Most people would need a special rider policy for that.

[keymomachine]

On 10/23/2021 at 1:19 PM, Mark Twain said:

there’s also the product lost at the self checkout kiosks that people just miss and don’t scan.

I will admit to having missed a couple things in the past for sure. You get a four year old wearing a mask and talking unintelligibly into the mix and things get hectic.  I mean, they could also pay enough employees to cover their checkout lanes. It's obviously cheaper for me to accidentally steal things once in a while.

[Lego Lass]

4 hours ago, keymomachine said:

I will admit to having missed a couple things in the past for sure. You get a four year old wearing a mask and talking unintelligibly into the mix and things get hectic.  I mean, they could also pay enough employees to cover their checkout lanes. It's obviously cheaper for me to accidentally steal things once in a while.

I'm sure all of us have inadvertently forgotten to scan something at WallyWorld, just as I'm sure all of us have accidentally scanned and paid for something twice. I figure it all evens out in the end…

[exciter1]

14 minutes ago, Lego Lass said:

I'm sure all of us have inadvertently forgotten to scan something at WallyWorld, just as I'm sure all of us have accidentally scanned and paid for something twice. I figure it all evens out in the end…

..and all of us have got cash back and walked away in a hurry and realized two days later you left it hanging.

[Lego Lass]

1 hour ago, exciter1 said:

..and all of us have got cash back and walked away in a hurry and realized two days later you left it hanging.

But I bet you haven’t left cash back hanging to steer your woozy, post-colonoscopy spouse to a bench (same spouse who insisted he was “totally fine” 5 minutes before almost passing out).  And then had a WM employee actually hand you your cash and ask if you needed a juice. 

[TheOrcKing]

22 hours ago, Lego Lass said:

But I bet you haven’t left cash back hanging to steer your woozy, post-colonoscopy spouse to a bench (same spouse who insisted he was “totally fine” 5 minutes before almost passing out).  And then had a WM employee actually hand you your cash and ask if you needed a juice. 

I hope nothing serious was found and your spouse is doing alright. With that said being this time of the year with everything going on, my brain went to this bit of dialogue from one of my favorite horror films.

 

[Lego Lass]

39 minutes ago, TheOrcKing said:

I hope nothing serious was found and your spouse is doing alright.

He's fine…just needs to remember to drink some juice before leaving the outpatient center. This happened two colonoscopies ago, and it's become quite the embellished story in our family…going from, "Dad felt crummy at Walmart and mom had to walk him to the car; to Dad almost passed out in the express lane at WM and mom accidentally left cash behind; to mom almost got robbed and Dad almost DIED at WM!"