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Man Arrested After $50,000 Of Stolen Lego Found At His House

Man Arrested After $50,000 Of Stolen Lego Found At His House

If he's guilty, he'll be swapping building blocks for cell blocks.

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

A man was arrested in Portland, Oregon last Thursday after having been found to have $50,000 (£37,000) worth of stolen Lego in his house.

40-year-old Raji Afife Azar stands accused of stealing huge amounts of Lego and then selling them on at a huge mark-up online.

He was finally arrested after he allegedly bought about $13,000 (£9,600) worth of stolen toys from undercover investigators, according to a report on local TV station KGW8.

Portland Police Bureau

He was also under investigation by the retail theft department of a supermarket that had identified him as the head of the illegal Lego ring, between the two forces they closed the net around him and managed to build a case.

After police searched his home in the south of Portland they found a massive haul of Lego sets that were stolen from local branches of the supermarket Fred Meyer.

Azar is thought to have been using a network of thieves - many of whom are addicted to drugs - to steal the toy sets after meeting up with them and arranging the thefts on sites such as Craigslist.

He would then get the stolen Lego from them and buy them for less than their sale price, before selling them online for much more than that.

Portland Police Bureau

Basically, it's the perfect crime. Lego is basically untraceable and sells very quickly. It is also expensive and collectable, meaning that there is fast money to be made if you can get your hands on the right sets. Certain Lego sets can sell for upwards of $1,000 (£735).

Sets of Lego also have no serial numbers, making it very difficult to tell if it has been stolen or not.

The Portland police issued a statement warning buyers to beware of things that are being sold as new online for a significantly lower price than retail.

It read: "Investigators remind anyone purchasing items from a non-retail location to be aware of items sold as 'new' or in unopened packages with prices that seem too good to be true - the items may be stolen,"

Portland Police Bureau

They added: "As part of Azar's fencing operation, people who often times suffered from addiction to opioids and other drugs would enter stores and steal items to sell to Azar.

"Azar would in turn buy the stolen merchandise for a small percentage of the items' actual worth and sell the stolen merchandise at a large profit for himself."

Azar has been charged with first degree theft, computer crimes, and laundering a monetary instrument.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, theft, Lego, crime, US