Lego trafficking scheme of stolen sets worth thousands busted ‘brick by brick,’ Seattle police say
A Lego trafficking operation was damaged up “brick by brick” after a Seattle store proprietor was caught re-selling stolen units price 1000’s of {dollars}, police stated this week.
The Seattle Police Division introduced the bust on Monday, dubbing their investigation “Operation: MandalOrganized Retail Theft” as a result of Lego units impressed by the Star Wars sequence “The Mandalorian” had been incessantly stolen.
The King County Prosecuting Lawyer on Wednesday charged Mark Steven Brady, 67, with one depend of trafficking in stolen property for allegedly reselling stolen merchandise at his retailer, Rummage Round.
Brady instructed NBC Information on Friday he had not been arraigned but and that his court-appointed lawyer had not but contacted him, however declined additional remark.
Trafficking in stolen property is a category B felony in Washington state, the utmost penalty for which is 10 years in jail or a $20,000 nice, or each.
The SPD stated they started to research after Amazon 4-Star, an in-person retailer owned by the net retail large, reported in July that they had been the goal of repeated thefts.
Between July and September, one thief allegedly stole an estimated $10,000 price of units and electronics from the shop, in keeping with a prison criticism.
It wasn’t till September when an worker from Amazon 4-Star entered Rummage Round, a retailer in downtown’s Pike Place Market, and observed that the Lego units on the market appeared to match the units stolen from Amazon.
“He notified police, and a detective went to the shop to research. Whereas the detective was on the retailer, the prolific shoplifter arrived and offered a number of objects to the store’s proprietor,” the SPD wrote on their crime blotter.
RFID tags from the objects matched these of the robbed retailer, the police stated.
Police say their October sting investigation, which concerned plainclothes detectives promoting marked merchandise to Brady, revealed that the store proprietor allegedly knew he was shopping for stolen items to resell.
Police had been unable to detain the “prolific shoplifter” who detectives accused of stealing the $10,000 in merchandise.
After receiving a search warrant on Oct. 15, authorities raided Rummage Round and recovered quite a few electronics and 171 Lego units, 34 of which had been confirmed stolen from Amazon 4-Star and valued at over $2,000.
