LEGO thieves are running around France and the authorities are rounding them up. Le Parisien had the report on the Polish group that was getting into toy stores and making off with as many bricks as they could get their hands on. Stores including PicWicToys, Maxi Toys, and La Grande RécréBack were targeted. On June 10, some employees at a Picwic Toys store were trying to steal boxes, and the security identified them as specialists instead of just regular workers. Complaints about similar heists allege that the thieves have stolen as much as 20,000 euros at a time. America, Canada, and Australia are also seeing stores targeted by similar rings. The publication mentions that in San Diego, a group of specialists actually got caught with $60,000 and 200,000 euros worth of product on them back in 2015. So, apparently, LEGO is a booming business and you could imagine that these schemes will only get more complex as time goes on.
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NPR just reported there’s an international ring of toy thieves stealing Lego’s and I’ve never laughed harder at a headline
— Ciara Flotka (@Cfrannn) April 3, 2021
“The Lego community isn’t just made up of children,” an investigator told Le Parisien. “There are numerous adults who play with it; there are swaps and sales on the internet. We’ve also had people complaining their homes have been broken into and Lego stolen.”
Another source explained, “The gang was raiding. They arrived in France, settled in a hotel in the Paris region and scoured the toy stores in the area before returning to Poland to sell their merchandise.”
Gerben van IJken, a LEGO specialist talked to the Guardian about the incidence of these kinds of crimes.
“Investing in these pieces isn’t new but this niche market has reached new heights with the pandemic. People have more time at home because of the health restrictions and the game market has exploded. We often have more than 1,000 Lego sales a week,” he began. “There’s always been dealing in Lego because it’s a premium toy range and attracts many adults, but also because the company withdraw its collections around two years after they come out, so a secondhand market is inevitable.”
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