The Santa Rosa Police Department raided a house in Lake County, California, this past week. The house was not filled with drugs, weapons, or humans that were going to be trafficked. The most gruesome sight the police found was a home filled with thousands of severed heads… belonging to Lego mini figures.
The heads, arranged by facial expression, were among the many thousands of tiny bricks the cops had to sort through as part of this $6,000 Lego fencing operation. The whole thing was masterminded by a 39-year-old named Robert Lopez. It’s part of the sprawling, lucrative, and somewhat silly Lego brick black market.
According to police, Lopez was running the black market ring while recruiting people to steal high-value Lego sets from big-box stores, buying them at a discount, and flipping them for profit, piece by literal piece.
It makes sense. If we live in a world where everything is so wildly expensive, people feel they have to steal crown jewels from the Louvre and conduct high-end cheese heists to survive.
Of course, Lego, a perennially beloved collectible, would have its own little black market. Some pieces are incredibly rare and worth upwards of thousands of dollars.
For example, an exclusive ComiCon Spider-Man minifig is estimated to be worth over $15,000. Some sets even appreciate 10 percent a year, which outpaces the S&P 500, meaning some sets accrue more value annually than your 401(k).
Lego set thefts are so common that Target and Walmart have been working with law enforcement across California to help catch thieves and prevent new heists. Just last year, in 2024, thieves made off with $100,000 worth of Lego sets and accessories at a popular Lego retailer called Bricks & Minifigs.
The story is silly, and gets even more ridiculous (or darker, depending on how you look at it): among the thousands and thousands of bricks, connecting pieces, and severed Lego heads, the police found a loaded assault rifle and a shotgun locked in a safe.
I suddenly feel the urge to develop a pitch for a Breaking Bad-style crime drama about the hardcore Lego black market. Will there be an episode where a prominent Lego black market kingpin is found decapitated, his head replaced by a tiny Hulk minifig head?
You’ll have to watch season 3, episode 8, to find out.
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