$300,000 of stolen Legos recovered by retail theft task force
A specialized task force seized about $300,000 worth of stolen Legos during a handful of raids in Los Angeles and Orange counties this week.
The California Highway Patrol's Organized Retail Crime Taskforce served the search warrants on Tuesday at four places connected to an illegal fencing operation and arrested four people: three men and one woman.
The suspects, 44-year-old Jeremy Johnson, 39-year-old Marta Hardt, 47-year-old Chung-Pei Yu and 35-year-old Shen Li have been booked for organized retail theft, grand theft and conspiracy to commit a crime.
During the raids, officers found stolen merchandise from several retail stores, including Target, Home Depot and Lowe's. However, the most abundant stolen items were Lego sets featuring iconic items from movies, videogames and models of classic cars.
Numerous boxes lined the walls of the buildings and were stacked up to the ceilings in some places.
A fence is a group or an individual who buys stolen items and tries to pawn them off as legitimately acquired merchandise at businesses, swamp meets or online marketplaces.
Investigators believe two of the suspects would steal the items from various stores and deliver them to local fences.