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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."

6 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Re:LEGO by Joe+Random · · Score: 3, Interesting
    If you look on the bricks themself you will see LEGO printed on each dot. And the box says LEGO.
    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?
    The website refers to the product as LEGO.
    That's because the website uses the word more as an adjective than as a noun. It's always "LEGO building sets" or "LEGO bricks". But the word "LEGO" has become sort of a generic term to refer to the style of building blocks (probably to mixed feeling from the LEGO people). Just as I can refer to a box of bandaids, when they're really Band-Aid brand bandages, I can also refer to legos instead of LEGO brand building blocks.
    The article even explains the etymology of the word.
    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.
  2. Re:RFID.... by fishbowl · · Score: 1, Interesting



    "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."

    It's shoplifting, which is theft, so he did *exactly* steal them. The point when the crime is committed is when you switch the price tag concealed from the merchant. (It would be legal to switch the tags with the merchant's consent -- it's the point of concealment where it becomes shoplifting.)

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  3. At least he took it from the stores... by CowsAnonymous · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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  4. Mapping software? by jiawen · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "...along with the mapping software on how to get there."

    Is use of Mapquest now prima facie evidence of intent to commit a crime?

  5. Re:LEGO by Kiffer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?

    But you can't say Mountains Dew... um... any way.
    Look I have a two plastic boxes and a plastic bag ... I don't have three plastics.
    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)

  6. Re:RFID.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    He PAID for them. Stealing usually involved NOT paying, but this guy DID pay.

    Just not the right amount.