In a plan that seems doomed to fail, police say a California man bought $34,000 worth of Lego sets from Target. He then filled the boxes with dried pasta and tried to return them so he could keep both the Lego pieces and his money.
As it turned out, in what should come as no surprise, police eventually arrested and charged the man, Jarrelle Augustine, 28, with grand theft for allegedly stealing the Lego sets.
“Everything was awesome in this Lego crime spree until we got involved,” the Irvine Police Department wrote on Facebook, announcing the arrest. “A suspect purchased Lego sets from Target, and removed valuable mini figures and pieces from the boxes, and in some cases, replaced them with dried pasta. You read that correctly, we are talking about durum wheat semolina pasta, and what we are calling a pasta-tively terrible plan.”
“Target reported at least 70 thefts nationwide tied to the same suspect, stacking up about $34,000 in losses. That’s a lot of missing pieces,” the Irvine Police Department continued.
“But like most bad builds, this one didn’t hold together. IPD detectives snapped into action, conducted surveillance, and identified the suspect. Authorities arrested Jarrelle Augustine, 28, of Paramount, for grand theft and booked him at the Orange County Jail.
“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine, we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente.”
The plan was actually working, until it didn’t
According to the Guardian, investigators first started looking into the case in December 2025. When Target’s loss prevention department examined returns, they discovered that one of the Lego boxes was open and contained missing figurines. That’s when they called the police.
Police said Augustine was able to get refunds at Target locations in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Westminster, as well as other stores out of state, including Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey and Florida.
Officers eventually caught him after setting up surveillance at a local Target store. They then tracked Augustine to his apartment in Los Angeles County and arrested him. There, they found several packages of Lego pieces, including those from Star Wars and Marvel sets.