Software Exec Arrested For $30,000 Lego Theft

[Cyberjester]

Funny ways some people try to scam a living.

Then i suppose you need to be some sort of pragmatist to be able to pull this sort of stuff anyway.

What's worse is that this guy was a company Executive - A VP even. Yet he still found reason to induce himself into this scam which made him a 'paltry' $30,000.

I can understand some down-and-out office worker or disgruntled Retail Assistant doing this, but not someone who likely gets more than $150,000 a year.

Logic failure.

Sometimes executives do theese things for fun. Steve Jobs famously drove a car without lisence plates.

Though all that was legal becuase there was a one-month period in which a car can be driven on the road before it must be issued lisence plates. It did mean he had to replace his car every month, but he actually said it was a game to him.

You've got so much money you don't know what to do with it, the only way to relieve boredom is to find something completely and utterly ridiculous. Creating barcodes, cutting the barcodes out of the lego boxes, planting your fake ones in, getting through the register, then convincing someone to buy it for 200USD more than you paid for it sounds pretty challenging. Possibly even fun

 

[Proverbial Jon]

But seriously, buying a $249 set for $49 is rather incredible. Those boxes are freakin huge! If the cashier would have had the slightest clue about Lego, this guy wouldn't have been able to pull that one off.

I don't know how it works in other countries but in the UK you have to sell the item for the price that it appears as on the cash register, regardless of the price listed on the shelf. This has happened to me a few times when buying electronic items in shops over here, always a nice surprise.

Anyway, Lego is so severely overpriced that I doubt anyone in the shop would even look twice if you halved the retail price. It never looks like it's worth the asking price.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Langenbach is 47. Isn't that a little old to be playing with toys?

Langenbach is 47. Isn't that a little old to be playing with toys?

Yeah I agree, 47 years old and still building Lego?, he should be playing with Meccano like a fucking real man, the sissy.

Take a look at this local news story from the city I live in:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47513448/ns/local_news-kansas_city_mo/

Evidently there's plenty enough adults that still love themselves some Legos.

wow the fuck...

kansas city sucks!

jk it's actually quite nice, if I ever want to move away that would probably be one of my top 3 choices.

that is an awesome day though, i might just have to remember that...

 

[crepesack]

Funny ways some people try to scam a living.

Then i suppose you need to be some sort of pragmatist to be able to pull this sort of stuff anyway.

What's worse is that this guy was a company Executive - A VP even. Yet he still found reason to induce himself into this scam which made him a 'paltry' $30,000.

I can understand some down-and-out office worker or disgruntled Retail Assistant doing this, but not someone who likely gets more than $150,000 a year.

Logic failure.

Sometimes executives do theese things for fun. Steve Jobs famously drove a car without lisence plates.

Though all that was legal becuase there was a one-month period in which a car can be driven on the road before it must be issued lisence plates. It did mean he had to replace his car every month, but he actually said it was a game to him.

It was also to park in handicap spaces without getting a handicap plate or tag.

 

[TimeLord]

Where's the creativity in buying a set of everything ready to make?

Lego should be kept in one big box that you have to rummage through to find that one piece that you saw 10 minutes ago and you now can't find.

 

[Cpu46]

Langenbach is 47. Isn't that a little old to be playing with toys?

It is my view that you are never too old for lego. I am 21 and my 50 year old mother still tries to build at least part of any set I bring home. I also have two large bins with a ton of old sets that could probably fetch a good price on Ebay, I build them from time to time.

 

[Gather]

It's no legos; it is just Lego. To me, Lego is one of those words that implies both grouped and singular at the same time (Like Pokemon).

It just makes me cringe when someone says "legos" instead of "Lego is"

...But yes, wish I bought this cheap stuff. It would have been awesome.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

Its sad because if any target employe had payed attention they wouldve noticed
1) This guy buys alot from us eh...
2) How come i sold this for 300 and then for 50$?

 

[Mortons4ck]

But seriously, buying a $249 set for $49 is rather incredible. Those boxes are freakin huge! If the cashier would have had the slightest clue about Lego, this guy wouldn't have been able to pull that one off.

That's not really how it works in Big Box retail. As a cashier, you're not paid to ask questions, you're paid to ring up the "guest" and wrap their goods as quickly as possible to assist the next one in line. You are timed on this. If you ring them up quickly, you get a "Good" rating. If you ring them up not quickly enough (or your "guest" is just slow at taking their charge card out") you get a "Bad" rating. If, at the end of a couple shifts you drop below 80% Good, you are up for a "Performance Review".

Point is the price of a box of Legos is the last thing on cashier's minds. They don't walk around the stores and look at prices like Sales floor team, or get too involved with Assets Protection. They're too busy/fatigued/justdon'tgiveafuck to notice price discrepancies, just get 'em out the door and on to the next one.

Smaller retail and hobby stores, however, are a different story...

Its sad because if any target employe had payed attention they wouldve noticed
1) This guy buys alot from us eh...
2) How come i sold this for 300 and then for 50$?

They were. Again, its Target's in-store securities job to do that. Not the cashiers.

Also, you need to have a good amount of indisputable proof before you go asking the police for a warrant, especially since he never overtly stole anything. Warrants aren't granted so easily.

 

[Grenaid]

You know what would be amazing? If they had applied the same diligence in sorting legit stuff to the Megaupload case.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

Langenbach is 47. Isn't that a little old to be playing with toys?

You are never too old for Legos

This man is a glorious pirate. We need to make him famous, so drinking songs can be made of his exploits. And, if we're lucky, he'll escape to his yacht, where a fierce battle between him and the cost guard will break out. He'll accidentally step on a loose brick on the stairs, causing him to fall into the engine room and spill fuel, which will then be ignited by a misfiring electrical component, damged in the firefight, causing the engine to exploded. The ship will sink to the ocean floor, and for years, we'll hunt for his lost lego treasure trove, stowed away on board

 

[Dr.Panties]

Langenbach is 47. Isn't that a little old to be playing with toys?

You are never too old for Legos

This man is a glorious pirate. We need to make him famous, so drinking songs can be made of his exploits. And, if we're lucky, he'll escape to his yacht, where a fierce battle between him and the cost guard will break out. He'll accidentally step on a loose brick on the stairs, causing him to fall into the engine room and spill fuel, which will then be ignited by a misfiring electrical component, damged in the firefight, causing the engine to exploded. The ship will sink to the ocean floor, and for years, we'll hunt for his lost lego treasure trove, stowed away on board

Hark! Tales of Lagenbach's Lego Locker are already flying on the winds! Another round of rum for my swarthy treasure seekers! At first light, we seek plastic in the high seas!

 

[The Youth Counselor]

$279 for a plastic Millennium Falcon that isn't even assembled?

Now that's a crime!

 

[duchaked]

I've been playing with a lot of Lego sets this summer, and I remembered why I never got that many as a kid...cuz they're bloody expensive lol

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

Funny ways some people try to scam a living.

Then i suppose you need to be some sort of pragmatist to be able to pull this sort of stuff anyway.

What's worse is that this guy was a company Executive - A VP even. Yet he still found reason to induce himself into this scam which made him a 'paltry' $30,000.

I can understand some down-and-out office worker or disgruntled Retail Assistant doing this, but not someone who likely gets more than $150,000 a year.

Logic failure.

Sometimes executives do theese things for fun. Steve Jobs famously drove a car without lisence plates.

Though all that was legal becuase there was a one-month period in which a car can be driven on the road before it must be issued lisence plates. It did mean he had to replace his car every month, but he actually said it was a game to him.

One of his reasons was that he didn't want people "Recognising him".

You're driving around in a car with no plates. I think people are gonna know who you are.

He apparently just shrugged this warning off.

Logic failure.

Oh and it was every 6 months (Pedantic).

Steve Jobs did that just because he could. Not for any practical reason.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Glad to see you fixed the title. That was really bothering me, for some reason.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Software Exec Arrested For $30,000 Lego Theft

A vice president with a California software company has been busted running an elaborate Lego eBay scam.

47-year-old Thomas Langenbach is Vice President of the Integration and Certification Center at Palo Alto-based SAP Labs LLC. He's been with the company since 1988, according to his LinkedIn profile [http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=30163496&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=3bWp&locale=en_US&srchid=639f4be5-30c6-456c-a35b-74a6dd9325b5-0&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3&goback=.fps_PBCK_*1_Thomas_Langenbach_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2&pvs=ps&trk=pp_profile_name_link], and joined SAP Labs' ICC in 2000. He holds a degree in computer science and business administration from Berufsakademie Mannheim in Germany.

He's also a Lego criminal mastermind.

He's not made of Lego, to be clear. Rather, he was busted putting fake, "sophisticated" bar codes on boxes of Lego sets at various Target stores, which allowed him to purchase them for far less than their real prices, and then turned around and sold them on eBay for a big profit. Among his scores were a $279 Millennium Falcon set that he bought for $49, and an Anakin Skywalker set normally listing for $90 than he got for $35.

And while it may sound a little rinky-dink, it was actually a very lucrative and busy enterprise. A search of his "multimillion dollar San Carlos home" turned up "hundreds and hundreds" of Lego boxes, and police said he's sold roughly 2100 Lego items worth $30,000 through his now-closed "tomsbrickyard [http://myworld.ebay.ca/tomsbrickyard/?_trksid=p4340.l2559]" eBay store.

Police caught on to Langenbach's scheme thanks to Target's in-store security, which apparently pays very close attention to Lego sales as a matter of routine; as police spokeswoman Liz Wylie explained, "Legos are very popular and expensive." He's currently facing four counts of burglary, but could be on the hook for more as police are still trying to separate the stolen Lego items from those he may legitimately own.

Source: NBC Bay Area [http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/VP-of-Palo-Altos-SAP-Arrested-in-Lego-Scam-152320475.html]


Permalink

You guys have to really, really stop this trail by media nonsense. Every single article on the site that deals with a suspected crime refers to an arrested individual as guilty--using past tense and phrases such as "busted" and "criminal mastermind," no matter how jokingly--before they've even seen a trial.

News flash: innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law doesn't mean "innocent until police arrest you."

You can't be respected or taken seriously if this is how you report a potential crime.

 

[the darknees abyss]

holy son of a ***** i can't belive it that guys a genius wish i thought of it make money the only diffrent is if did it i won't get caught no suspects the sweet little kid