California man accused of stealing $34,000 value of Lego and returning the containers full of pasta | EUROtoday

A person in California has been arrested for allegedly stealing greater than $30,000 value of Lego by swapping the plastic bricks for dried pasta.

Jarrelle Augustine, 28, was arrested in Irvine in reference to a minimum of 70 Lego thefts at shops throughout the nation. According to Irvine police, Augustine stole roughly $34,000 value of Lego.

After shopping for and opening a field, Augustine allegedly changed the plastic Lego bricks and figures with dried pasta. Investigators informed FOX 11 LA that the dried pasta mimics the sound and weight of Lego bricks shifting round when the field 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 informed CBS News.

He then allegedly returned the containers to shops and requested refunds. Irvine police declare that Augustine acquired refunds at Target shops in Costa Mesa, Irvine, and Westminster, in addition to various shops exterior of California. Police allege Augustine can also be linked to dozens of Lego thefts in Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Florida.

Investigators allegedly discovered a number of packages of Lego at Augustine’s condominium after he was taken into custody.

“These were definitely sets that were consistent with what he was purchasing and then returning,” Azarcon mentioned. “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, in line with police.

The uncommon nature of the crime wasn’t misplaced on Irvine police, which launched a pun-laden social media put up asserting the costs.

“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine, we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente,” the division mentioned in a social media put up.

It additionally referred to as Augustine’s alleged scheme a “bad build” that “didn’t hold together.”

Last week, three different males — Jose Lopez, 37, Ruben Lopez Flores, 25, and Freddy Hernandez Polinar, 35 — have been arrested for allegedly stealing two truck trailers that contained Lego units, in line with NewsNation.

Joshua Hanlon, the proprietor of Beyond the Brick, a social media group claiming to be the “world’s largest Lego fan community,” informed NewsNation there’s a sizable marketplace for second-hand Lego gross 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 informed the outlet.

He additionally mentioned that it is nearly inconceivable to know whether or not or not the bricks have been stolen as a result of they don’t have serial numbers or different figuring out markers on them.