Software Exec Arrested For $30,000 Lego Theft

[Nouw]

Man I thought this was going to be a story about a guy stealing legos and making something awesome with it.

 

[FoolKiller]

That guy is a genius, they should let him go on account of his creativity.
Seriously, replacing the bar codes? How did he get that brilliant idea?

I thought of that about ten years ago and just didn't follow through with it because the risk reward isn't worth it.

Also, people are missing the point. LEGO used to be for kids to play with and use their imagination and creativity to build stuff. Now what regular kid (or parent) can afford $250 for a damned LEGO set. I remember when my mom had to wait till Christmas to get me the $40 set. Unfortunately, as with many cool things, LEGO has turned into a collector's game and is priced for maximal greed.

captcha: genghis khan

why yes, I would like a LEGO genghis khan

 

[Andrew_C]

What an ar*ehole. He's a VP at SAP, a company almost as big as Oracle and in the same line of selling eye-wateringly expensive software you don't actually need. He will be quite literally rolling in money. Does he also steal sweets from babies?

 

[Phisi]

Assuming he is the first to do this. I think he should get off almost Scott free as that is damn clever. The only reason he gets punished is he got caught for such a rookie mistake

 

[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

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!

I heard that he had enough Lego ON his yacht to BUILD a yacht. you and me, bro, we'll ship out together and be rich within the week!

 

[LostintheWick]

There is a positive correlation between being and exec(or other upper management) and getting off on manipulating a system and cheating it. They get off on the power.

They are shit people.

 

[Ashoten]

The sad thing here is I bet with his legitimate day job made all the monies he needed and that this Lego business was just for kicks. You know just see if he could do it kind of thing.

 

[mattaui]

I was about to say that this was really old news, but this guy just did what another guy did in 2005. What was getting me is that Target nabbed them both! You'd have thought this guy wouldn't just repeat the same dumb thing, but no, he did.

 

[Hitchmeister]

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.

The way I read it was California has a 6-month grace period for getting tags, so he made a deal with the car dealer to get a new car every 5 months. That's one way to "fight the man."

 

[Nuke_em_05]

I had always wondered if you could manipulate the UPC system in this way. It doesn't seem that hard, really. I imagine you could do it for more than Legos.

Not quoting, because "meh", but to some of the sentiments.

You are never too old for Legos. However, this guy wasn't building with them, he was re-selling them. Which not only makes him evil, but a worthless person. Because, honestly, if you are going to steal Legos, at least be decent enough to build with them.

Pre-fab sets take the imagination out of it. Also, they are more expensive due to licensing, as well as manufacturing custom pieces and paint jobs. A $20 tub with more bricks than a $300 Millennium Falcon is generally full of easy to produce bricks of standard colors.

Some execs do illegal things because, well, they love money, or they love the thrill. Just like anyone else. Thrill is a big factor for some people, that's why we have people who put more effort and energy into illegal activities than legitimate counterparts where they could actually make more money.

 

[Dr Jones]

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$?

A cashier wont notice that. Usually shit goes very fast for them and they probably don't know the price tag of every piece of Lego they have. It's a huge store.

 

[donutsftw]

I'm kinda suprised no-one else has pointed this out, but the prices listed in the article are completely wrong. The set shown here (7965 Millennium Falcon) has a retail price of $139.99, and while I'm not sure what "Anakin Skwalker set" they're talking about, I'm guessing it's 9494 Anakin's Jedi Interceptor, which has a retail price of $39.99. I've never seen Target sell Lego sets for more than their retail price, and they frequently mark them down below retail price (the Millennium Falcon set is currently $119.70 at Target.com), so clearly someone was either really misinformed about how much Lego costs, or no-one bothered to fact-check the original story.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Fuck! I've bought from that dude before! D: He actually had decent prices on some things.

Oh well, not the first, and probably not the last time I'll inadvertently help someone do something illegal. Whatcha gonna do?

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

Now that's a crime!

...Why would I want it assembled? That would entirely defeat the point.

 

[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$?

A cashier wont notice that. Usually shit goes very fast for them and they probably don't know the price tag of every piece of Lego they have. It's a huge store.

Now i would agree that its a BIG store and that there probably a decent amount of workers over there so he might be able to shift around to not be memorable. But also how come the stores themselves didnt notice the loss of profit? Like your missing alot of value because of his shenanigans . . . just the way he was caught seems lame.
And also the mere fact that LEGO isles are monitored above avarage in itself is crazy xD RLY the LEGO is stolen more than clothes and other stuff. . . .