Thieves target Lego kits in lucrative trade

Some Lego sets have skyrocketed in value, but behind the eye-popping price tags is a dark side: an underground market that fuels brazen thefts, writes

- Aimee Ortiz from New York

It’s one Lego kit, a collection of small plastic bricks and related accessories. What could it cost? The answer, it turns out, could be thousands of dollars.

Lego kits and minifigures, figurines that are a little over 1.5 inches (3.8 centimetres) tall, are commanding high prices on the secondary market, with some, like the San Diego Comic-Con Bard the Archer, valued as high as $16,846 (about 559,000 baht).

The children’s toys have even become something of an investing opportunity to those savvy enough to know which to lock for.

But with the eye-popping price tags comes a dark side: Lego kits have become a hot commodity on the black market and the target of brazen thieves. Last year, burglars hit the Bricks & Minifigs outlet in California, Thieves made off with at least $100,000 worth of Lego kits and accessories.

Last month, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in California recovered nearly 200 Lego sets after arresting a person in connection with a burglary at Crush Comics, a comic book store in Castro Valley, Calif.

Joshua Hunter, the owner of Crush Comics, said that members of his staff found the store’s stolen comic books for sale on eBay within hours of the theft.