She, 39 years old. He is 71 years old. A strange couple of thieves for a theft that at first glance may seem unusual but which instead risks becoming a trend. Yes, because she, Bianca, robbed a Lego shop and he, Richard, hid the loot. For a little while because the police caught them.
The Los Angeles area is the theater of black history, among the most affected by specialized gangs, areas where commercial points that have the colorful bricks are targeted. In reality, the usual unknowns are not interested in the “loose” pieces but in the most valuable sets, those representing monuments, films such as Star Wars, the Lord of the Rings and all types of adventures. The catalog is rich, expanded by new products. Once the “constructions” have been stolen, they are placed in garages and houses, and are subsequently “offered” online thanks to a sort of rather “flourishing” black market: a box that costs 150 dollars in the shop can reach figures that oscillate between 1000 and 4000 dollars. It depends on demand, on how many packs are available (often some “subjects” are produced in limited series), on the interest of buyers. Which, however, according to the testimonies, would not be few. Some showed up at the home of Richard (the arrested person) in the middle of the investigation, attracted by advertisements on the Internet.
Already in the period 2019-2021 there had been numerous episodes in France, with criminals arriving from Eastern Europe. They had settled in a hotel in Paris, had completed the robberies and had then returned to their countries of origin to start the second phase by placing their “treasure” online in search of customers. In Lippstadt, a German town in the Rhineland, they even opened a gap in a wall to be able to reach the shelves where about a hundred boxes were lined up, while the agents of Kent, in Great Britain, intercepted a car with numerous “examples” of constructions whose theme was the Vespa, an off-road vehicle and a robot.
According to some experts, the popularity of Lego has had a revival during the pandemic, attracting not only children but also adults who have been joined by collectors. And the criminal phenomenon has taken hold in the United States: several reports of “raids” in Philadelphia, Green Bay, Las Vegas, some locations in California and previously specialized malls around Phoenix (AZ). Not infrequently some supermarkets have been robbed several times, in broad daylight, by men and women filmed by security cameras. Individuals who acted in absolute tranquility, with their faces uncovered, in broad daylight and without anyone trying to stop them.
No less surprising is the discovery of the Australian Narcotics Department. During two raids against as many networks involved in the production of methamphetamine they seized dozens of valuable Lego sets, some now out of business, goods valued at hundreds of thousands of euros in the hands of traffickers. Probably they also wanted to do business using the bricks
