Millionaire Steals Lego?!?!?

[Gooker1]

A friend of mine came across this article and showed it to me and it was too funny. I guess millionaires are pretty darn bored.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/VP-of-Palo-Altos-SAP-Arrested-in-Lego-Scam-152320475.html

[Rook]

That's awesome! Now there's a job opening that one of us can apply for!

[scotth510]

That is crazy. I got a kick out of some of the comments people posted for this story.

[Bellicose]

The ebay seller was 'tomsbrickyard'...anybody bought from him? It certainly sounds familiar.

Here's Gizmodo's article on the subject.

[Solo]

I remember someone else running the same scam a while back. Seemed pretty clever at the time. Doesn't surprise me someone else tried it. I bet others have too and probably got away with it more often than not.

[Rook]

Problem is greed. Criminals tend to slowly increase their risk factors to increase their profit margin, which means someone will catch you. Simple probability and statistics takes over. The more times you do something the more likely you are to see all of the probable outcomes. In this case arrest and imprisonment are possible outcomes. Doesn't take a genius to know that. Then again maybe it does.

[crazybirdman]

yeah but the last time someone did it they were way smarter (not smart enough to not get caught) spreading it around to several stores.

[Draykov]

I remember someone else running the same scam a while back. Seemed pretty clever at the time. Doesn't surprise me someone else tried it. I bet others have too and probably got away with it more often than not.

You're probably referring to William Swanberg who had a popular Bricklink store.

[deco_droid]

"Those bar codes were for a much cheaper price. So, for instance, Hendrickson said that Langenbach bought a $279 box of Millenium Falcon box of LEGOS for just $49"

Is that a typo, or do the Targets in CA really sell their Falcons for $279??? I'm starting to feel sympathy for the guy.

[cas]

That's just a really poorly written sentence mixed with a typo. In actuality, he bought two Millennium Falcons for $49 (and the podracers for $35).

[GrayMattR]

I really don't get what motivates someone that can afford a multimillion dollar home to steal hundreds. Not only did he copy someone else's scam, he used a debit card which makes it instantly traceable. Criminals are dumb.

[Robzula]

Why is it that every time I read a news article online it sounds like a middle school book report crossed with a casual forum post filled with typoes? Do these people not have editors?

I really don't get what motivates someone that can afford a multimillion dollar home to steal hundreds.

I'm guessing it was more for the thrill of stealing it than it was because he didn't want to pay for it.

[DarthMC]

TheSmokingGun.com had a story a while back about switching bar code stickers at target

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/crime/behind-bars

From the story, the Target security already knew about him from a previous incident and watched him when he came back.

I also saw a news clip about Target security and they actually tracked one of their stolen items to EBay and bought it to get the thiefs fingerprints. The "item recovery command center" was quite amazing.

DarthMC

[scotth510]

Just thought I would update this story. update