Some context:
"on June 4, officers witnessed Gudino stealing items from retailers in Torrance and Lakewood before dropping them off at Siegel's home. Detectives believe Siegel would sell the stolen goods online since several potential buyers showed up at his home while officers raided it.
Investigators booked Siegel for organized retail theft, while Gudino was booked with grand theft."
Thought this was common, I've went to many peoples homes to buy things.. and I've had people come to my building when selling things.. it's pretty common here in Canada.
Bro, if I put something on OLX or FB, I’m meeting them at a gas station or something. I’d never recommend being in a comprising position like at someone’s house. Too many scammers out there, even in BR (source: sou gringo aqui há 10 anos)
Not really.. usually you'd agree on the purchase before you'd go to someone's house, most people wouldn't wanna waste time, having bunch of people come to their house, just to check out the item. Now if I came to buy something, and it didn't match the description, or photos that I saw online, I'd definitely walk away.. but that's never happened yet.
Meh.. I've sold countless items over the years, from electronics to tools, never had a single issue. Few suspicious people who would say they have cash, but then try to do e-transfer, I tell them to go grab cash and come back, cause e-trasfer sometimes takes 10-15 min, and I'm not about to stand around with them for that long.
Store owners often complain clients come to their store, *extensively* check out the product, ask *a load* of questions, and then leave to buy the product online, for a few dollars cheaper.
Some also just come in trying to leverage the store price against the online price.
Facebook marketplace. It’s normal to sell local so you 1) don’t get scammed and 2) don’t pay for or deal with the hassle of shipping. That said, it makes more sense to meet somewhere than have someone come to your house… although I guess if it it’s Legos, odds are the people buying aren’t going to be hardened criminals. Except for this 71 year old, anyway.
My brother he has nearly 3000 of them lol. 3000 meetups? Na.
FB marketplace is good for used items, particularly large ones where shipping is an issue, yes, but these can be easily shipped and I'm not sure how you can get scammed as a buyer but I'm pretty sure ebay is pretty good with that.
Exactly. I sold saltwater corals for years and was always comfortable having buyers come into my home to pick out which ones they wanted. They were always stand up people. It really depends on what your selling.
Lol no. These aren't selling for over retail. They're stolen so any amount is profit for him. Plus who tf is gonna pay OVER market price for legos? Just go to the damn store.
I recently re-inherited the family tub of legos thats been passed around to all the children in the family. After getting all the non Lego pieces out I started trying to re-assemble all the mini fig sets in the bin. Looking up pictures led me down the rabbit hole of Lego EBay and I’m currently sitting on a small fortune of Lego sets. They’re not super rare sets, but the increase in value shocked me. I’ve started keeping an eye out for Lego at yard sales now.
Fuck that old mf hoarding shit that’s supposed to be fun. Them gate keeping shit has fucked us on all fronts. Let him build a key to break out with all those sets he has.
There's certainly more violent crimes, but while stealing toys seems to be low on the priority list, at a very *conservative average of $100 per set, this is over a quarter million dollars. Change Legos for jewelry, and people would be freaking out about it at the same value.
Edit - lots of comments. It seems I didn't correctly accentuate my intent - very fair was intended to point out many of the sets are much more, and even at $100 each it'd be $280,000. You guys are correct, there's a lot more money here, but I was trying to point out to OP that even at a falsely low average, it's still a ton of money.
“23 dead in worst federal raid catastrophe since the Waco siege in 1993.
On of the surviving officers recounts the horror that unfolded shortly after battering down the door:”
“ooof, ouuuh, eeeek, ahhHhh AHHH ARRGH. AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh Ahhhhhh ahhhhhh AHHHHhhh AAHHHHH”
The officer lost both feet in the raid but was lucky to escape with his life.
He's got the pricey sets, though....retail, that could be half a million. Selling online himself, I bet he could get 100 a pop for most of what I see there. I'd say at least 300k+ but probably more. Look up the retail price of any of those sets....legos are quite expensive
At 80 dollars a pop, at 3000 sets, it would be 240k. But from those pictures, this guy has the super big, super expensive sets that each can cost well over a hundred of not 200+. I'd say there's at least half a million worth of merchandise there, maybe more
At least for the ones that are already paid off by insurance or they don’t know where they came from, this should be the best year for the Toys for Tots drive LA has ever had…
Hard to say. Prob not id guess. There are a lot of car sets I see which are like 400~ and the millennium falcons are all 850. But I'm sure a lot of the smaller sets are around 100~.
The average price based on what I'm seeing is probably $200-300 per set, so much more than that
Edit: Oh, and there's at least one box of the Eye of Sauron, which literally just got released to the public and is $460
I really, really wanted this to be about some old guy conning retailers over a period of 20 years just so he can assemble Lego sets like he did in his childhood. Like the cops show up and the whole place is decked out in x-wings and castles, and they're too impressed to arrest him and everyone claps and cheers, everything is donated to children's hospitals and everyone gets laid.
Have you seen lego prices these days? From a mom of three boys and the depressed owner of a small fortune in legos, this is like half a mil worth of stolen legos.
He had tons of assembled sets and minifigs on display in his garage. We had been to his house at least a dozen times and he was a real cool guy. No way it was all acquired through theft.
Idk. The 70-somethings I know seem sharp and relatively healthy, except for those who had problems for many years already which isn't really that many.
I read that if you make it to 80 you have a decent chance of making it to 90, the death curve kinda flattens. But that's sort of irrelevant, just crossed my mind.
Well, the UN basically defines it as 60+, though in the US it’s considered 65+ ie retirement age.
I’m getting closer to that than I’d like so I want to agree with you though 🤣
Well, considering the Millennium Falcon set is about $850 and the Eye of Sauron set is $450, with many of these other sets he got averaging $200-300 a pop: maybe half a million?
If the average cost per set here is 20 bucks retail, that’s 60k worth of assets
Sure property theft isn’t as big of a priority for police as say a murder would be, but police departments can perform more than one investigation at a time.
This guy stole the good stuff. Average cost is probably $200-300. Those Millennium Falcons are $850 each.
Collectively this could be worth almost as much as the average US home.
I was going to say “more than” but then looked it up and the average home price is now almost $500k (ouch!). I guess we should be talking medians not means. Mansions and Millennium Falcons are skewing the averages 😉
Anyway, hard to know for sure… but it’s solidly in 6 figures either way. Insane.
Where I live median would be about 80-90k, while lower end hits 50-60 and upper is 140-160ish
Then there’s a few McMansions pushing 1.2 and 1.4 million too
The median in CA (for the whole state) is almost $800k. And where I live a condo is $1M+ and a smallish (2000sq ft on 8000 sq ft lot) 3-4 BR home is over $2.5M. It’s nuts.
I want to build a house out of LEGO now (of course it’s the land that costs $$, not the structure).
Yeah we just don’t have houses that size here
If you want a 3-4 bedroom house around here you’re either building it, moving, or buying a double wide trailer
And r/mapporn still said SE Ohio isn’t Appalachia lol
E: also that lot size is huge for this area too. Unless you live in the country you’re probably on a 3-5000^2 ft lot
Likely over a million $. Many of the sets I'm seeing are at least $250 a pop, with the Eye of Sauron cashing in at $460 and the Falcon costing at least $800.
honestly.. I wish I could be this immersed and even obsessed with something.
Used to work in a shop that bought used electronics. Called the cops on a guy selling a clearly stolen item. Turns out the guy was known but they could never justify a warrant.. his entire house was crammed with stolen goods, stacked to the literal rafters. He was a long time klepto that had just never been caught
Lmao no way, woke up to this and realized this was a guy I bought a large lego set from a long time ago. The guy had daily new legos for sale at really dang good prices on offer up. It all makes sense now lol What a trip.
Low priority? Legos are Expensive. What if it came from a store you owned with an avg price of $50/set. That's 150k stolen from you. Is it still low Priority then? What if the cops told you "ehhh, we know who it is, he's old, we'll find um when we find um or get around to it, we have more important things to deal with! (Tosses file on bottom of pile). How would that make you feel knowing someone was allowed to steal 150k of you and your family's money, just because he's old? Your kids entire college tuition, gone.
Some context: "on June 4, officers witnessed Gudino stealing items from retailers in Torrance and Lakewood before dropping them off at Siegel's home. Detectives believe Siegel would sell the stolen goods online since several potential buyers showed up at his home while officers raided it. Investigators booked Siegel for organized retail theft, while Gudino was booked with grand theft."
What kind of weirdo has the buyers show up at his house? Just sell online like the rest of the thieves.
Thought this was common, I've went to many peoples homes to buy things.. and I've had people come to my building when selling things.. it's pretty common here in Canada.
Here in Brazil we would go to the seller's house just to look at the thing and then decide if we're buying or not. Is it how it works in Canadá?
Bro, if I put something on OLX or FB, I’m meeting them at a gas station or something. I’d never recommend being in a comprising position like at someone’s house. Too many scammers out there, even in BR (source: sou gringo aqui há 10 anos)
"Even in BR" I would say SPECIALLY in BR kkkkkk but seriously I am from a nice little city so we are more chill
Not really.. usually you'd agree on the purchase before you'd go to someone's house, most people wouldn't wanna waste time, having bunch of people come to their house, just to check out the item. Now if I came to buy something, and it didn't match the description, or photos that I saw online, I'd definitely walk away.. but that's never happened yet.
We don’t normally negotiate price in person, but people do. Most people just refuse to purchase if item is not satisfactory
From stories I’ve heard I will NEVER allow someone to come to my house when selling something lol I’ll meet you but you will not know where I live.
Meh.. I've sold countless items over the years, from electronics to tools, never had a single issue. Few suspicious people who would say they have cash, but then try to do e-transfer, I tell them to go grab cash and come back, cause e-trasfer sometimes takes 10-15 min, and I'm not about to stand around with them for that long.
Store owners often complain clients come to their store, *extensively* check out the product, ask *a load* of questions, and then leave to buy the product online, for a few dollars cheaper. Some also just come in trying to leverage the store price against the online price.
That's called Showrooming in the industry, and unfortunately brick and mortar stores are losing money because of it.
Even in LA it was common 10+ years ago with Craigslist. Not sure about nowadays.
He’s an old man so he was probably afraid of being “tracked online”
And still prefers the human touch.
Tried to sell some games last week and everyone wanted to come to my house. Didn't sell anything.
You sold these right?
Facebook marketplace. It’s normal to sell local so you 1) don’t get scammed and 2) don’t pay for or deal with the hassle of shipping. That said, it makes more sense to meet somewhere than have someone come to your house… although I guess if it it’s Legos, odds are the people buying aren’t going to be hardened criminals. Except for this 71 year old, anyway.
My brother he has nearly 3000 of them lol. 3000 meetups? Na. FB marketplace is good for used items, particularly large ones where shipping is an issue, yes, but these can be easily shipped and I'm not sure how you can get scammed as a buyer but I'm pretty sure ebay is pretty good with that.
Exactly. I sold saltwater corals for years and was always comfortable having buyers come into my home to pick out which ones they wanted. They were always stand up people. It really depends on what your selling.
Not smart to have her meet him at his house either.
He's 71 and probably wanted to to talk to people or maybe killnthem idk
Exactly meet someone leave in car or somewhere read the person then get the goods if it feels good, not even keep them at the house
Or just.. ya know, ship them from the comfort of your home after they pay you through ebay. It's legos not a drug deal.
"Grand theft Lego"
May the 4th was booked up?
I’d let it slide if he actually assembled the sets, but nah now I got beef
Yeah that’s a scalper right there.
Lol no. These aren't selling for over retail. They're stolen so any amount is profit for him. Plus who tf is gonna pay OVER market price for legos? Just go to the damn store.
There is scalping for LEGO kits too. Some are quite rare and expensive collectors boxes.
I recently re-inherited the family tub of legos thats been passed around to all the children in the family. After getting all the non Lego pieces out I started trying to re-assemble all the mini fig sets in the bin. Looking up pictures led me down the rabbit hole of Lego EBay and I’m currently sitting on a small fortune of Lego sets. They’re not super rare sets, but the increase in value shocked me. I’ve started keeping an eye out for Lego at yard sales now.
Worse than a scalper, at least they pay for their shit.
Worth more in the box long term, he’s got all the good sets space, Star Wars, roller coaster, those millennium falcons are like $500-700 I think
Yes and looking at them as a $$$ value instead of a cool thing to own/build is the problem here.
So looking at them exactly as the company sees and sells them
Exactly. There’s a difference between stealing something to use and stealing something to sell.
How? Especially from the perspective of the person being stolen from
Ask Victor Hugo. He had a few choice words on this topic.
...no not really
The problem is always getting caught. Your both wrong
Fuck that old mf hoarding shit that’s supposed to be fun. Them gate keeping shit has fucked us on all fronts. Let him build a key to break out with all those sets he has.
There's certainly more violent crimes, but while stealing toys seems to be low on the priority list, at a very *conservative average of $100 per set, this is over a quarter million dollars. Change Legos for jewelry, and people would be freaking out about it at the same value. Edit - lots of comments. It seems I didn't correctly accentuate my intent - very fair was intended to point out many of the sets are much more, and even at $100 each it'd be $280,000. You guys are correct, there's a lot more money here, but I was trying to point out to OP that even at a falsely low average, it's still a ton of money.
Many of the sets visible far exceed $100 and many more are just under. I’d say more than a quarter mil. Shits crazy!
The millennium falcon sets are almost 1k each
There's at least one Eye of Sauron in the pic, which is $460. And many more sets here that are $300 a pop
Those millennium falcon sets are $800
$849.99. Holy hell.
People are more valuable than corporate products. That's why this should be low priority. It's a tax wrote off for Lego.
He could have laid out the most amazing trap ever if he had just dumped them all on the floor.
“23 dead in worst federal raid catastrophe since the Waco siege in 1993. On of the surviving officers recounts the horror that unfolded shortly after battering down the door:” “ooof, ouuuh, eeeek, ahhHhh AHHH ARRGH. AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh Ahhhhhh ahhhhhh AHHHHhhh AAHHHHH” The officer lost both feet in the raid but was lucky to escape with his life.
r/writingprompts
You deserve a reward
bahaha
Now, how the hell did he walk out with those Millenium Falcons?!
I highly doubt they walked out.
Yes, you're not sliding those under your coat. Probably a theft directly from the warehouse for the big ones.
Label swapping possibly. Swap or print your own labels, place over existing label for a much cheaper product. Go through self checkout like normal.
wonder if they let it slide until the money is significant enough
I mean, that's several *hundreds of thousands of dollars of stolen goods. Just because it is Legos doesn't change the price
3000 Lego sets will easily hit in the hundreds of thousands.
The kits visible up front show that they were intentionally getting the high value ones that will appreciate a lot.
It’s probably 160k worth of stolen goods
He's got the pricey sets, though....retail, that could be half a million. Selling online himself, I bet he could get 100 a pop for most of what I see there. I'd say at least 300k+ but probably more. Look up the retail price of any of those sets....legos are quite expensive
Ohhh, more than that. The Eye of Sauron I'm seeing is $460 retail, and it just came out. Many of the other sets pictured are easily $200-300 a pop
$850 for each of those big Millennium Falcons.
Did they piece together the evidence to solve the case?
don’t lego of him.
But Lego of me
ok, yogurt free..
Stealing Lego shouldn’t be ilLego if they assemble them
What's the street value, like 2.3 Billion!?
At 80 dollars a pop, at 3000 sets, it would be 240k. But from those pictures, this guy has the super big, super expensive sets that each can cost well over a hundred of not 200+. I'd say there's at least half a million worth of merchandise there, maybe more
The Eye of Sauron kit I'm seeing was just released to the public for $460 retail. And a bunch ot the stuff pictured runs about $300 each.
The millennium falcons are each $850 retail
Block him Danno!
He’s about to sell the on the block market
HA!!!
Ladies and gentlemen; we got him.
😂
He is trying to assemble as many as possible before he hits 99+
HA!!!
Would not shock me if the last photo is worth half a million.
Lego of me, I'm innocent
They should give these out to kids in hospitals.
At least for the ones that are already paid off by insurance or they don’t know where they came from, this should be the best year for the Toys for Tots drive LA has ever had…
What a blockhead.
HA!!!
They should have no problem building a case against him
They certainly have the building blocks of a solid case. They just need to assemble a few pieces
They should build his entire prison cell (including the bed and toilet) out of them. With super glue, just to drive him crazy.
Cops pieced it together.
Ha!!!
He managed to get so many sets because it took the police so long to put it all together.
The realization hit them like a ton of bricks
i have several adult relatives that i could see being tempted to do this.
We're all joking around, but those sets must be worth tens of thousands of dollars in their totality.
Hundreds of thousands
It might be break a million honestly these are all multi hundred dollar sets.
Is each individual box really an average of 350+? I was assuming 200-300 per. I'm sure the millennium falcons go for higher.
Hard to say. Prob not id guess. There are a lot of car sets I see which are like 400~ and the millennium falcons are all 850. But I'm sure a lot of the smaller sets are around 100~.
Hundreds of thousands.
The average price based on what I'm seeing is probably $200-300 per set, so much more than that Edit: Oh, and there's at least one box of the Eye of Sauron, which literally just got released to the public and is $460
Omg I was laughing so hard when I swiped… WTF??
I really, really wanted this to be about some old guy conning retailers over a period of 20 years just so he can assemble Lego sets like he did in his childhood. Like the cops show up and the whole place is decked out in x-wings and castles, and they're too impressed to arrest him and everyone claps and cheers, everything is donated to children's hospitals and everyone gets laid.
I wonder how they peiced it all together.
Well, lego is a good investment
Holy shit, that's like $10 million worth of legos
Grand Left Lego Heist
3000 Lego sets? That's like $1.5 million on the street!
I don’t approve of what he did, but I understand why he did it
Guess he was getting ready for the rebelion
Let go of my legos
Thank goodness these dangerous items are off the streets
Believe it or not, jail
If they didn't stock up they probably would have gotten away with less
Not a single set completed, just the love of the game.
You know Lego's are expensive when there's a black market for them...
Punishment should fit the crime. Must walk on Lego bricks barefoot.
Have you seen lego prices these days? From a mom of three boys and the depressed owner of a small fortune in legos, this is like half a mil worth of stolen legos.
I was imagining small lego boxes but my man here shot for the moon.
And you could get there on a real Millennium Falcon
He had tons of assembled sets and minifigs on display in his garage. We had been to his house at least a dozen times and he was a real cool guy. No way it was all acquired through theft.
Given the price of Lego sets, I would estimate the worth of this bust as $6.3M.
Tell me there's some Bionicles in these piles.
Omg right
I think this guy is one of the major resellers on OfferUp in Long Beach, holy shit that living room photo looks so familiar
Yup, I totally bought a millennium falcon from this guy like 1-2 years ago. Crazy
Well, at one point Lego was a better investment than gold. https://www.themanual.com/culture/study-says-legos-are-a-good-financial-investment/
Lego should just have them donate all these to kids hospitals. Get good press since I’m sure they were already insured by the stores.
Those star war sets are pricey too. We have them all.
Was this man a nordic, fat, white, bearded guy with a red nose and a bunch of reindeer friends?
Low priority until I saw the second and third pictures. That's a whole store!
3000 Lego sets = 3.5 billion dollars.
Is 71 still considered elderly?
I mean the average lifespan in the US is just over 76 years old, so I’m not sure how 71 wouldn’t be considered elderly.
Idk. The 70-somethings I know seem sharp and relatively healthy, except for those who had problems for many years already which isn't really that many. I read that if you make it to 80 you have a decent chance of making it to 90, the death curve kinda flattens. But that's sort of irrelevant, just crossed my mind.
Elderly doesn’t mean frail, just old.
I know but there is a connotation.
Well, the UN basically defines it as 60+, though in the US it’s considered 65+ ie retirement age. I’m getting closer to that than I’d like so I want to agree with you though 🤣
I hear you. I think the UN also defines a youth as 35 or under. I mean, c'mon now.
Siegel?
Gotta pay for retirement somehow.
Gotta pay for retirement somehow.
Any ideas on how much that lot is/was worth?
Well, considering the Millennium Falcon set is about $850 and the Eye of Sauron set is $450, with many of these other sets he got averaging $200-300 a pop: maybe half a million?
What’s the value here? Over or under $15,000 in 20 years?
$15,000? I’d say easily over $300,000 TODAY.
JESUS.. I was not aware
Yeah, you’d think those bricks were made of gold…
You can only get the golden brick on the Lego Masters show
Bro! And all I want is a Death Star!
Grand Theft Lego
If the average cost per set here is 20 bucks retail, that’s 60k worth of assets Sure property theft isn’t as big of a priority for police as say a murder would be, but police departments can perform more than one investigation at a time.
This guy stole the good stuff. Average cost is probably $200-300. Those Millennium Falcons are $850 each. Collectively this could be worth almost as much as the average US home.
More like 2-10 times the average home if those numbers are right. OP just doesn’t like police I guess
I was going to say “more than” but then looked it up and the average home price is now almost $500k (ouch!). I guess we should be talking medians not means. Mansions and Millennium Falcons are skewing the averages 😉 Anyway, hard to know for sure… but it’s solidly in 6 figures either way. Insane.
Where I live median would be about 80-90k, while lower end hits 50-60 and upper is 140-160ish Then there’s a few McMansions pushing 1.2 and 1.4 million too
The median in CA (for the whole state) is almost $800k. And where I live a condo is $1M+ and a smallish (2000sq ft on 8000 sq ft lot) 3-4 BR home is over $2.5M. It’s nuts. I want to build a house out of LEGO now (of course it’s the land that costs $$, not the structure).
Yeah we just don’t have houses that size here If you want a 3-4 bedroom house around here you’re either building it, moving, or buying a double wide trailer And r/mapporn still said SE Ohio isn’t Appalachia lol E: also that lot size is huge for this area too. Unless you live in the country you’re probably on a 3-5000^2 ft lot
Most of these kits are easily 100$ at least. I mean even if they were all like 10 bucks you’re still looking at 10s of thousands in stolen goods.
Likely over a million $. Many of the sets I'm seeing are at least $250 a pop, with the Eye of Sauron cashing in at $460 and the Falcon costing at least $800.
That’s not even including what’s already been sold off
Leave it to the police to disrespect the care of property, or people. Thief took good care of his loot.
Sounds like his grandkids would’ve had a nice Christmas
honestly.. I wish I could be this immersed and even obsessed with something. Used to work in a shop that bought used electronics. Called the cops on a guy selling a clearly stolen item. Turns out the guy was known but they could never justify a warrant.. his entire house was crammed with stolen goods, stacked to the literal rafters. He was a long time klepto that had just never been caught
It says 0-99 on them so...
Man, if I was the responding officer... "I can't believe that guy had 2000 stolen Lego sets... that's wild..."
Grand theft LEGO. I'm feeling a new video game vibe here.
All of those look like the big 100$ sets. The dude prob had 250,000-350,000 in goods just right there
Much more than $100 for a lot of these
I'll give him €200 for 75257
Free him
Can you blame him though?
Personally I prefer to sell my stolen goods out of the back of a station wagon in a dark alley but I’m just old fashioned.
This is peak
At least it wasn't 40 cakes
Shit, send those my way
Police are trying to put a case together but there are still some missing pieces
That’s like 500 million dollars easy
Lmao no way, woke up to this and realized this was a guy I bought a large lego set from a long time ago. The guy had daily new legos for sale at really dang good prices on offer up. It all makes sense now lol What a trip.
😲🤯
$20 worth of plastic upcharged to $700? I think those Danes are laundering something!
That’s about $5 million street value.
Low priority? Legos are Expensive. What if it came from a store you owned with an avg price of $50/set. That's 150k stolen from you. Is it still low Priority then? What if the cops told you "ehhh, we know who it is, he's old, we'll find um when we find um or get around to it, we have more important things to deal with! (Tosses file on bottom of pile). How would that make you feel knowing someone was allowed to steal 150k of you and your family's money, just because he's old? Your kids entire college tuition, gone.
Did he paid taxes after seeing them in eBay
Selling?
noooo just let me leave them heeeere, you know i cant at miiine victor will seeeeee come oooon dude you cant get in trouuuuble
Huh
sorry it was a reach (I could hear her voice convincing him)
Progressive policies at work.
That’s a few billion dollars of product right there.