$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.
More from CBS News
Related articles
Iran helicopter crash that killed President Raisi could reverberate across the Middle East
JERUSALEM (AP) — The helicopter crash in which Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s foreig2024-05-22Milwaukee man charged in dismemberment death pleads not guilty
SOUTH MILWAUKEE (AP) — A Milwaukee man charged with killing and mutilating a woman whose body parts2024-05-22Beyonce goes hell for leather black fringed pantsuit as she poses on an 18
Beyoncé wowed her 319 million Instagram followers on Monday as she shared two new posts.The 42-year-2024-05-22A memorial opens on the site of a Nazi concentration camp for Roma after a pig farm was removed
PRAGUE (AP) — A new memorial opened on Tuesday in the Czech Republic on the site of a former Nazi co2024-05-22Burglar hurled stolen mobile phones at police from the top of 60ft high roof during nine
A burglar hurled stolen mobile phones at police officers from the top of a roof during a nine-hour s2024-05-22- Two military helicopters collided in mid-air before crashing and killing all 10 people on board duri2024-05-22
atest comment