A Silicon Valley executive spent countless hours constructing an elaborate plan to cheat local Target stores out of collectors Lego blocks, prosecutors say.
Thomas Langenbach, a vice president at the software company SAP Labs in Palo Alto, crafted fake bar codes and pasted them over the real thing on Lego packages in Target stores, Santa Clara County prosecutors said. The fakes gave Langenbach a steep discount, prosecutors said.
After purchasing the Legos, Langenbach allegedly sold them for a profit on eBay. At least some of the Legos were valuable collectors items featuring “Star Wars” characters, prosecutors said.
Hundreds of unopened Lego boxes were found in Langenbach’s San Carlos home, authorities said.
Want to publish your own articles on DistilINFO Publications?
Send us an email, we will get in touch with you.
Prosecutors said the thefts were puzzling, because the scam was extremely labor-intensive and not particularly lucrative.
“He was going back to the same store, to different stores, then had to package them up, post them on eBay and send them out,” said Cindy Hendrickson, a supervising deputy district attorney in Santa Clara County.
EBay told prosecutors that 2,100 items from Langenbach’s account had been sold since April 2011 for a total of $30,000.
via Silicon Valley exec charged with Lego thefts | Crime Scene | an SFGate.com blog.