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Stealing Legos for fun and profit?
Mad_Rain writes "Every nerd I know had (or still has) a fairly extensive Lego collection. But I don't think most would go so far as to steal $200,000 worth of Legos. When police arrived to carry away the evidence from his home, they needed a 20-foot-long truck. They found in the car of the accused a laptop computer that had a list of Target stores that he was planning to defraud along with the mapping software on how to get there."
So I guess the charges STUCK? :)
Find a job you like and you will never work a day in your life.
Is this story about? I'm completely and utterly confused as to its worth and merit. And for me, that's a first here.
A Target security guard stopped Swanberg at a Portland-area store on Nov. 17
And he would have gotten away with it too... if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dog!
Cue grammar nazis in 3, 2, 1...
and the evidence will just keep stacking up against him.
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I'm half surprised this wasn't listed under 'Your Rights Online'
So that's like, what, four starwars sets?
Get over it. Legos. Legos. LEGOS.
I hope he at least got one of those foot tall yoda's http://www.fbtb.net/sets/index.asp?page=set&set=71 94
Legos, plural useage of the word... fuckin doornob
There were no stories and now all of the sudden there are like 5 in a row!
I think this lego guy stole all the articles for today, and they found them stuck in a lego brick jail.
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But I don't think most would go so far as to steal $200,000 worth of Legos. When police arrived to carry away the evidence from his home, they needed a 20-foot-long truck.
Why do you need a truck to move 10 lego sets?
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I just realized why there are so few replies to this story so far: everyone here is out trying to figure out how they can get their hands on $200,000 worth of legos. I could build my own home addition with all those; that would be awesome.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
"...a list of Target stores that he was planning to defraud..."
Can you really blame him? The store's name is Target. Their logo is that of a target. Their mascot is a dog with a bull's-eye encircling one eye, looking as though it's in an abusive relationship. Oh, and those damn commercials. Clearly, this company is just asking for abuse.
The guy didn't exactly steal the legos (or LEGO bricks, for the anal-retentative). He pulled the ol' UPC-swap trick on the store. What do you want to bet the retail market will use cases like this to try to push for RFID tagging of products? "If we only had RFID tags in all of the products we sell this never would have happened, and we would have saved our shareholders tons of money."
I think this official website disagrees with you there.
If I remember correctly, the site used to say something along the lines of "please use our trademark properly. The plural of Lego is Lego." or something like that.
I think this official website [legos.com] disagrees with you there.
Uhh, I think the URL of the website disagrees with your argument.
Don't count your messages before they ACK.
So THIS is really what went wrong with Lego Mindstorms... this guy has been stealing all the sets!
No, but you could probably add another RFID tag, with a larger antenna and stronger signal....
Federal and state authorities will move aggressively to ban mapping software.
Sheriff Clancy Wiggum noted a sharp increase in teenagers and middle management types who have been recently arrested with print outs of maps taken from online sources like Google.Com and Yahoo.Com. "Easy access to information like this has to stop!" said Sheriff Wiggum, noting that from now on only donut stores and brothels should be shown on maps.
I wonder if this is what he looks like now...
I wonder if this is what he looks like now...
no the url is there so when people type it they will get the message that they don't want to be called legos, but LEGO. http://legonotlegos.ytmnd.com/
if i'm not immortal, what's the point of living?
...te?
The story says he has sold $600k worth of legos. Damn, he's just a run-of-the-mill crook, in it merely for the profit. I was hoping the story would explain what kind of totally insane thing he wanted to build that needed $200k worth of legos. Like he was building a whole house or something. Drat.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
If a Lego set costs $99 at the store but $1 to make, how much did this guy really steal... was it $200,000 worth of product or $2,000. And if he paid more than $2,000 for it (which it sounds like he did) is it really stealing at all?
Let's just call him the Robin Hood of Lego Land and move on with our lives.
set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4 expandtab nocp worlddomination
And the word "ninja" comes from Japanese, which lacks plurals (sort of). The correct way to talk about multiple of the assassins would be "lots of ninja attacked me". Doesn't stop me from saying "ninjas", though.
(shudder) You'd better watch out for the Grammar Ninja.
I could build my own home addition with all those; that would be awesome.
Given the stabillity of lego constructions, the only way that would be "awesome" is that you could do a great "Kool-Aid Man Oh Yeah" imitation.
Ok, I guess that is pretty awesome.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Need that one elusive piece? Just whip out the home RFID reader and point at your cases! Now you know right where it is, and can even do quick binary searches on piles of legos.
I wonder how many RFID tags a reader can pick out? Does a mass of different ones swamp a reader? Kind of an interesting question all by itself.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Grammar Ninja? So does it mean that Grammar Ninja's Gram-fu is stronger?
You can't handle the truth.
I actually worked in Lego's packaging plant in Enfield, Conn. USA for awhile. Apparently, the summer I was working there someone was stealing a bunch of new Star Wars sets off of the line and selling them on ebay. They found out soon after, of course, because he was using an ebay account with his home phone number.
CowsAnonymous: We're here to help moo.
Is use of Mapquest now prima facie evidence of intent to commit a crime?
I always thought of Lego as a kind of mass noun... like sand, or rice. You have Lego, or "a piece of lego". No "Legos".
In fact I've never seen/heard "Legos" used except online.
Half of the story reads like a police blotter, the other half reads like ad copy for LEGO. Anyone wanna go holiday shopping?
With all those lego bricks, they surely could've just built one. ;)
"Was it a millionaire who said 'Imagine No Posessions?'" -- Elvis Costello
The article falsely states:
"Records of the Lego collector's Web site, Bricklink.Com, show that Swanberg has sold nearly $600,000 worth of Legos since 2002, said Dolyniuk"
Some people sell stolen goods on ebay, but ebay is not THEIR website.
Bricklink is a marketplace to buy/sell new/used lego kits, parts etc, but having an account on bricklink doesn't make it YOUR website.
Grr.
I'm a perfectionist but I'm trying to cut back.
Hey, the Mountain Dew on my desk in front of me says "Mountain Dew" right on the can. I guess I can't talk about drinking two Mountain Dews, can I?
... I don't have three plastics.
But you can't say Mountains Dew... um... any way.
Look I have a two plastic boxes and a plastic bag
I have three plastic objects. or a pile of plastic crap.
I have 1500 Lego Bricks, 100 Lego men and 20 lego horses.
What have I? I have a lot of lego.
One lego brick.
Two lego bricks.
"a lego" makes no sense. like a red, or a round.
"Pass me that red bit of lego."
"I need two more of those 2X3 bricks to finish my ninja maze."
"Chuck me half that pile of lego"
At this point I think that people are just using Legos to troll people, and dispite the fact that the word brings me almost physical pain*, I'm never going to bother correcting any persons about this online from now on.
It's just a huge waste of time. From now on I'm only going to correct people about this in person... I almost winch every time I read or hear legos.
*(unlike when people say Sheeps, Fishs or Euros)
Is that one Grammar Ninja or multiple Grammar Ninja?
Required reading for internet skeptics
What's a Legos?
the Devil's Tower.
d evils_tower.html
http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/Parks/devils_tower/
With that in mind I'd say that both usages are valid, depending on whether you prefer to describe them as items or a sort of mass. I'm definitely in the "a lot of Lego attacked me" camp.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
*(unlike when people say Sheeps, Fishs or Euros)
Eh? Is the plural of Euro Euro then? Or do you just really hate single the european currency?
http://www.bricklink.com/feedback.asp?u=swanberg
my password really is 'stinkypants'
bastardizing plurals just because it sounds cute gets tired after you're 14 years old. calling sheep "sheeps", calling you "youse" or calling lego "legos" is a teenybopper creation that just makes people look like morons after they should have grown up.
If you want to stay in the mid teens and call them "legos" then go for it. It just reveals to the world a lack of common sense & maturity.
>> Grammar Ninja
I heard that there was this Grammar Ninja who was eating at a diner. And when some dude misspelled a word the Grammar Ninja killed the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw a Grammar Ninja totally uppercut some kid just because the kid used a comma wrong.
And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
Or maybe the slashdot coders could again give karma for Funny mods... The number of jokes modded Insightful should tell them something...
The missed point here is: Lego is now so expensive that it is worth stealing. When child's toy bricks get into the same crime bracket as alcohol and tobacco, something is wrong.
This isn't a case for RFID. This is a case for making Lego less expensive.
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
Do people actually say "fishs"? Since fishes is correct and I can't think of how to pronounce "fishs" without sounding like I have a lisp I can't imagine and haven't heard anyone actually do that.
What does that have to do with people being 14? It isn't like they are calling them 13g05 or something. It seems more akin to local slang than anything else.
Of course you can. It's a free country. You could even say 'cat' to a dog. But a difference between Mountain Dew and Lego is that the latter explicitely request not to refer to their product as 'legos'.
From Wikipedia:
Please always refer to our bricks as 'LEGO Bricks or Toys' and not 'LEGOS.' By doing so, you will be helping to protect and preserve a brand of which we are very proud and that stands for quality the world over.
You're SO right. Now you'll have to exuse me while I install Linux on all my boxen. I mean, I don't want to get virii.
In other news, thousands of nerds listed their boxes of old legos on ebay today, now knowing their collections are worth thousands each.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Yep. It comes of having a single currency across twelve countries with far too many languages, each with its own way of forming the plural. Should two be called 'euros', 'euraux', 'euronen'? The easiest way around this problem is to just declare that 'euro' does not change in the plural.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
They had to pre-order it, ship it cross-country, warehouse it, distribute it, and shelf it for god knows how long.
It cost them *at least* $2.
Or perhaps you should mod things based on whether they should be more visible to other readers, not to try and reward the poster.
The purpose of moderation isn't to boost karma. If something is funny, mod it funny.
would that maybe be "grammar ninjai"?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
for example, asking for a dollar. Give me a dollar
Thanks for the tip... fuckinG doorKnob.
LEGO trying to prevent the use of the word "legos" is just them trying to protect their trademark, something which they have to do if they want to keep it.
If everyone goes around calling all bricks "legos", other companies could start using it saying that it's just a common word. It's like Kleenex or other commonly used brand names. Every time you say "pass me a kleenex" it hurts the trademark, unless the company tries to prevent you from doing so, whether they actually care or are just following the laws on the matter.
would that maybe be "grammar ninjai"?
Iie.
If you're going to be anal about Legos, at least do it right.
"Hey, the Mountain Dew on my desk in front of me says "Mountain Dew" right on the can. I guess I can't talk about drinking two Mountain Dews, can I?"
No, there's no way to talk about drinking more than one Mountain Dew, because after you drink the first one you'll be brain dead.
Carpe Cerevisi - Seize the Beer
This is a STUPID argument. There is a reason that there is a Funny selection. Whoever mods funny posts as insightful is a fool.
You can't handle the truth.
And you're the reason why the Slashdot moderation system is such a mess. Stop worrying about if it gives Karma or not and worry about the content and what the moderation means. Funny is Funny, Insightful isn't Funny. Get over the fact that it doesn't give Karma, whoop-de-fricken-do.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
And remember, Grammar Ninja never give up. Adjust your lifestyle accordingly.
I am not a crackpot.
Hey, the Mountain Dew on my desk in front of me says "Mountain Dew" right on the can. I guess I can't talk about drinking two Mountain Dews, can I?
Sorry. My baaaaaaaaad.
Doshta no?
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
They seem to be using their own words for the cents though - centime, centesimi.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
The problem is, you make a joke that is funny, get 5 "+1 funny" mods, but that's outweighed by the one cretin who doesn't get the joke and mods it offtopic. A few of those and you're blocked from posting. I don't see why people who give us a much needed laugh should be prevented from doing so again. So in that sense yes, karma does matter.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
(shudder) You'd better watch out for the Grammar Ninja.
Is that one Grammar Ninja or multiple Grammar Ninja?
Yes.
I honestly don't understand this argument. I think you must be hung up on the fact that the French word for euro happens to be euro, but the plural is not formed in the same way as in English.
..., a grain of ..., a piece of ...". This seems to match lego quite well.
Why should this be a problem? If you're speaking English, it makes sense to form plurals according to English norms. Euro is a currency, like dollar and pound, and similarly can have a plural. Plurals and other parts of grammar act as a sort of CRC-check, confirming understanding of the message. If you're muttering, "9 euro" could sound like "1 euro". The very audible sibilant S helps clarify the message.
OTOH, I think the point you're trying to make with the plural of lego is a valid one. Lego is (at least in my opinion) an uncountable noun. This means that you can't use numbers with the word lego ("two legos"), and that there is no real plural for the word. You also have to say "how much" not "how many" *
Uncountable nouns are common in English with things that behave like fluids; eg. water, flour, rice, coffee, information, beer, hair (and even money, but not euro!). They are generally very difficult to actually count, and are used with prefixes such as "a bottle of
* There are plenty of examples of breaking these rules, such as when describing different types of a thing, talking in common units, or a sort of massive mixing of things: "the beers of Europe", "two coffees" or "The waters of the Euphrates".
I've been posting on the net since 1994 and I still haven't come up with a good sig!
If everyone goes around calling all bricks "legos", other companies could start using it saying that it's just a common word. It's like Kleenex or other commonly used brand names. Every time you say "pass me a kleenex" it hurts the trademark, unless the company tries to prevent you from doing so, whether they actually care or are just following the laws on the matter.
All you need to do is google for 'trademark dilution' on Yahoo to find out how brand names can loose their trademark status through common usage.
No, actually what really makes you look like a moron who should grow up is getting all worked up over the fact that how OTHER people communicate to each other (and quite effectively, I might add) doesn't measure up to your standards.
Get a life and quite worrying about people who says "legos". Geez...
Wow, you're.. kind of a tool.