Police build a case against Lego gang: Thieves steal $300,000 worth of high-value sets from Target, Home Depot and Lowe's stores across California

Police in California have charged four people following the theft of $300,000 worth of Lego sets from Target, Home Depot and Lowe's stores.

Three men and one woman, aged from 35 to 57, from Los Angeles were charged with organized retail theft, grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime, according to the California Highway Patrol (CHP).

The group were identified as Jeremy Johnson, 44, of Orange, Marta Hardt of Huntington, 39, Chung-Pei Yu, 47, of Studio City, and Shen Li, 35, of Brea.

They are accused of stealing hundreds of boxes of high-value Lego sets from across several popular stores across California, with two of the suspects believed to have acted as 'boosters'.

This means they would have stolen directly from the retailers before stashing the stolen toys in four different houses across Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The thieves would then ship off the stolen Legos to separate 'fences' - which are people who buy stolen goods to then sell at 'seemingly legitimate businesses, swap meets, or online', cops said.

Lego sets that California authorities say were stolen for resale are pictured

Shocking images shared by the CHP show stacks of Lego boxes piled up against walls and on crates, just waiting to be sold

Buyers may also not be aware that the Lego they would have purchased 'were stolen as part of an organized retail crime operation'. 

Shocking images shared by the CHP show stacks of Lego boxes piled up against walls and on crates, just waiting to be sold.

Within the mountains of boxes, some popular names can be spotted including Lego Icons and Ideas to Star Wars, City and Minecraft.

Lego Icon sets are worth hundreds of dollars, with the Lego Icon Eiffel Tower going for $629.99 on the website.

In another shot, dozens of copies of the brand new Lego Star Wars March 2024 releases, including 75375 Millennium Falcon and 75376 Tantive IV  can be seen stacked up - making the room resemble a Lego store stock cupboard.

Millennium Falcon sets sell for up to $839.

The estimated loss to retailers stemming from the alleged scheme is around a staggering $300,000, the CHP said. 

But this isn't the first time brick snatchers have got their hands on the expensive yellow blocks - without paying for them.

In November last year, two shameless shoplifters were spotted stealing £300 worth of Lego from an Asda store in Doncaster, South Yorkshire. 

They were captured on CCTV entering the supermarket, heading straight to the toy section and grabbing several boxes of Lego.

Then they went to the self-service checkout, put all the Lego boxes into carrier bags and walked past a security guard and out of the store without paying for any of the items. 

The women were jailed for 10 weeks and 16 weeks respectively.

And in 2022, police issued pictures of denim hotpant-clad women who they wanted to speak to in connection with a theft in which hundreds of pounds of Lego were stolen.

A woman and two men, who were in the middle of stealing boxes of Lego from a shop in Yvelines, near Paris, were arrested in June 2020.

The estimated loss to retailers stemming from the alleged scheme is around a staggering $300,000, the CHP said

The three people, all from Poland, reportedly admitted to be part of a specialist international Lego stealing gang.

Police in France then warned shops and parents to be on their guard, with some Lego sets being highly sought after by collectors.

The trio arrested in Paris aren't the only case of Lego being targeted by thieves.

Stores in Victoria and New South Wales, Australia, were victims of thieves who had been targeting Lego sets and made off with almost £17,000 of the bricks.

Also in 2014, four people were arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, on suspicion of stealing Lego from a toy store.