LEGO crime spree unravels after alleged thief replaces bricks with pasta
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TMX
IRVINE, California — A LEGO thief in California allegedly returned sets after replacing the valuable LEGO pieces with dried pasta, police said.
The Irvine Police Department said Thursday that “everything was awesome in this Lego crime spree until we got involved.”
The suspect allegedly purchased LEGO sets from Target, removed “valuable” mini figures and other pieces from the sets, and, in some cases, replaced them with dried pasta before returning them to the retailer.
“You read that correctly, we are talking about durum wheat semolina pasta, and what we are calling a pasta-tively terrible plan,” police joked.
Investigators say Target reported “at least” 70 thefts tied to the same suspect nationwide, amounting to $34,000 in losses.
Detectives conducted surveillance and identified the suspect as 28-year-old Jarrelle Augustine of Paramount. He was arrested for grand theft and booked into the Orange County Jail.
Images shared by the police department show boxes of loose LEGO figures and other pieces, along with dozens of bags of Goya brand elbow pasta.
“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine, we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente,” police said.