Irvine police department announces bust in pun-filled social media post about alleged $34,000 Lego looting
So much for using his noodle.
A California man pilfered thousands of dollars in Lego toy sets from the retailer Target in a return-based scam, sometimes swapping valuable figurines with dried pasta pieces and before returning the construction-centric toys, authorities recently alleged.
The alleged plot ended with the arrest of 28-year-old Jarrelle Augustine, accused of grand theft for allegedly stealing the Lego sets, whose manufacturer is known for the interlocking miniature bricks and figurines, according to Irvine, California, police.
“You read that correctly,” police said in a Facebook post announcing the 14 April arrest. “We are talking about durum wheat semolina pasta, and what we are calling a pasta-tively terrible plan.”
Most of the profits Lego generates go to lawyers who sue anyone making anything that has knobs on it.
They don’t want you to know that Lego lost that patent years ago and everyone can do the knobs now. They still hold patents on mini figs and their new smart brick though.
I heard about the LEGO drama recently (some big promoter went off about quality control and started recommending the other brands) so I checked em out. Pretty cool stuff!
The selection isn’t great (a lot of cars) and the mini figs are horrifying but overall, LEGO might be in trouble.
LEGO used to be about creativity, you had a huge bin of various blocks and made something to play with. Iterative prototyping.
Now it’s about following instructions to make one thing, closer to model kits. but my bin of blocks went through multiple generations of cousins, kids.
Hmm I’m not sure I totally agree. My nephews play with them the same way I did, intermingling sets with bucket bricks. And LEGO’s first sets came out just a few years after the bricks.
But I don’t totally disagree either because they’ve expanded their market to adults who want to use the completed sets as decoration and it seems to have made everything worse.
I’m guilty of it. I love the plant collection and have a few mixed in with my actual plants