Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Collecting Lego sets can be a very costly hobby due to how much some of them can run you. That reality has also made them a target for thieves looking to make a quick buck, including a man in California who was charged with a running a theft ring after police raid led to the discovery of a massive stash.
2024 marked the 75th anniversary of the production of the plastic bricks that serve as the foundation of the Lego empire. The Denmark-based company quickly found itself with a hit on its hands, and multiple generations of children have grown up playing with the toys that are responsible for the bulk of the close to $10 billion in revenue the brand generates on an annual basis.
Most people associate Legos with kids, but there are plenty of adults who would take exception to having their hobby dismissed as a childish one based on how much time and money they invest in it. The cost of collecting Lego sets can quickly add up, and some people will pay a very pretty penny for some rarer bricks while taking advantage of a market that one study argues makes certain bricks more valuable than gold.
In 2023, police came across a stash of Lego sets worth $130,000 after raiding a meth lab in Australia, and authorities in California recently recovered a slightly less impressive haul after conducting a bust of their own.
A man in California was hit with a slew of charges after being accussed of stealing more than $6,000 worth of Lego
In September, police in Santa Rosa, California heard rumblings of a Lego crime ring led by a man who was supposedly recruiting other people to steal sets from stores so he could purchase them at a discount before reselling the ill-gotten gains.
According to CBS News, the investigation culminated with a raid of the home of Robert Lopez, a 39-year-old Hidden Valley Lake resident whose residence was home to bins of bricks, unopened sets, and, “hundreds of disassembled LEGO minifigures…with bodies separated from heads, which were neatly organized by facial expression.”
The Santa Rosa Police Department posted a picture of the Lego haul—which had an estimated value of $6,000—along with a shotgun and assault rifle that were found in a safe, which resulted with Lopez being hit with illegal fireman charges on top of those connected the Legos due to his status as a convicted felon.
Lopez was booked in Sonoma County Jail, and it does not appear he has answered to the charges in court as of this writing.