Some of you might remember I posted this Summer about selling off a 1,000+ collection of Lego to raise money for a new home purchase. I input everything into Brickfolio and discovered I had 1,098 sets valued at $55k. I started selling the sets selectively on Craigslist and Amazon and raised about $16-18k over the last month and then came into my warehouse this morning only to discover that most of my remaining sets have been stolen.

 

The Sheriff's department just left, but it is pretty obvious the suspects knew what they were looking for, they took some sets and left others. They hauled out a couple hundred sets and even stole two moving dollies in the process. I only met 6 buyers here, and have turned their names over to the police in any hopes they can investigate and catch them. I noticed this past Monday just two sets were missing (a Temple of Airjitzu and an Ewok Village) and left work last night to purchase a security camera system with plans to install them today before the weekend.

 

Please keep an eye out for anyone trying to dump a new collection for sale online in the West Michigan area. I would think Ebay, Craigslist, Amazon, Brick Classifieds, etc. These were Lego people, they knew what to take and what to leave. The volume of the sets suggests to me they plan on selling them whole or parting them out (10 of this, 15 of that, 8 of those, etc.). I would really appreciate any information that anyone finds regarding new sellers or large amounts being sold off a large discounts be passed on to me. If you prefer to contact the Kent County Sheriff's Department directly, I can pm their contact information.

 

On a side note, we moved into our new house last week and love it. It breaks my heart that people I invited in to see and purchase from our collection would hurt us this way. Some of the older sets I was saving for my four kids to give as special Holiday and Graduation gifts when they were older. Now I need to go do a new inventory and discover the real extent of the damages.

 

Thanks,

 

Jonathan

This is a terrible story. Hope you are doing well. There are always opportunities out there. Just look ahead. 

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I appreciate it. I am working with our insurance provider, but that is painfully slow. The biggest effect on us right now is the daily loss of income. Since the break in we've installed a camera system and decided (like many of you mentioned) no more visitors or pickups at the warehouse. The sad truth is this is someone from Craigslist or Brick Link (or someone they know), there were only 8 people who came here and saw what we had on the shelves. It's hard to walk the line between keeping it all a secret and sharing with other AFOLS, but in the end it bit us hard. 

Strange discovery we made: they stole (3) cases of bubble mailers and enough wooden shelf supports to fill a small storage unit or basement (we had just brought these back from one of our retail stores the night before). Maybe this means the thief is planning on setting up shop somewhere and take their time going thru everything. Also missing? About 70 lbs of bulk unsorted LEGO. We started out sorting Goodwill auction lots and Craigslist bulk buys and transitioned to breaking down new sets. Too much work sorting and listing for us, again that suggests to us they are setting up a shop (or have a lot of personal MOC projects they want to feed).

On 10/24/2016 at 7:05 AM, marcandre said:

Those pics have shown up on CL here. It's a scam. 

First off, sorry to hear about the theft. It's ridiculous that people feel this is okay to do and I will never understand that thought process.

On the Quote here, how is this a scam, how does it work. Just trying to educate myself, and possibly anyone else that reads this.  Thanks

They usually ask for a PayPal payment or check/ credit card- even cash to be mailed to them. They don't actually have those sets.

21 minutes ago, labfreak7 said:

They usually ask for a PayPal payment or check/ credit card- even cash to be mailed to them. They don't actually have those sets.

Thank you.  Recently I was selling some exercise equipment when someone told me they were interested then followed up with, I'll send Cashier Check or something of the like, I just need your name, address, exact amount of payment plus I'll add $50 for your hassle, etc... I promptly responded back with, "Cash Only" and never heard from them again.  What a pathetic loser.

2 hours ago, 4cs said:

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I appreciate it. I am working with our insurance provider, but that is painfully slow. The biggest effect on us right now is the daily loss of income. Since the break in we've installed a camera system and decided (like many of you mentioned) no more visitors or pickups at the warehouse. The sad truth is this is someone from Craigslist or Brick Link (or someone they know), there were only 8 people who came here and saw what we had on the shelves. It's hard to walk the line between keeping it all a secret and sharing with other AFOLS, but in the end it bit us hard. 

Strange discovery we made: they stole (3) cases of bubble mailers and enough wooden shelf supports to fill a small storage unit or basement (we had just brought these back from one of our retail stores the night before). Maybe this means the thief is planning on setting up shop somewhere and take their time going thru everything. Also missing? About 70 lbs of bulk unsorted LEGO. We started out sorting Goodwill auction lots and Craigslist bulk buys and transitioned to breaking down new sets. Too much work sorting and listing for us, again that suggests to us they are setting up a shop (or have a lot of personal MOC projects they want to feed).

I had a bunch of lab equipment stolen from my work truck in west Michigan. The police even figured out who it was and it was in a storage locker. Police told me the people have got smarter and typically store the stuff awhile before anything so they are not noticed. They were trying to get it back but then the guy got a charge that sent him to a life sentence so he stopped talking as they had no leverage.

I hope you keep looking and find the person but sadly they know what they are doing and the storage equipment suggests it may sit in storage awhile

UPDATE! 

So I received a call from my insurance company the other day. The police arrested a guy for breaking & entering, and when they searched his property, they found "a lot of Lego sets". One detective was having lunch with my detective and casually mentioned the find, and he remembered my case from 2016 and they interrogated the suspect. He totally admitted meeting me on Craigslist, bought a few sets from me, and then came back to my warehouse to commit the robbery. 

He was able to back a cargo truck up to the loading door and spend several hours loading up. The replacement value at the time was $39k.

I am so relieved they caught the guy, and now I'm waiting to hear from the police so I can go see what is left from the theft (they say there is A LOT).

Next step will be to strike a deal with the insurance company to purchase everything back (at a salvage rate of course). They are willing to give me the right of refusal so I can recover all or some of it.

I'll update once I see what is left and what we can work out.

Just a reminder to everyone who can learn from my ignorance & innocence: never let anyone into the inner sanctum. Since the theft, we treat the warehouse like Willy Wonka's factory : no comes in, no one goes out. We even have a visual barrier separating the storeroom area from being seen by UPS and FedEx drivers. As far as Craigslist goes, I've only tried to sell a handful of larger items (new MF for example) with the stipulation that the transaction takes place at the local police department, and I haven't had a taker yet.

 

Glad to hear it wasn't a complete loss and that they were caught finally!

58 minutes ago, 4cs said:

The police arrested a guy for breaking & entering, and when they searched his property, they found "a lot of Lego sets". One detective was having lunch with my detective and casually mentioned the find, and he remembered my case from 2016 and they interrogated the suspect. He totally admitted meeting me on Craigslist, bought a few sets from me, and then came back to my warehouse to commit the robbery.

Sounds like something out of The Shawshank Redemption!

Oh, and I'm curious... how did the insurance company handle your stolen items and repayment to you? Did they take your word on stuff or did you have to provide receipts for everything you wanted reimbursed for, etc. etc. Thanks!

3 minutes ago, capsa77 said:

Oh, and I'm curious... how did the insurance company handle your stolen items and repayment to you? Did they take your word on stuff or did you have to provide receipts for everything you wanted reimbursed for, etc. etc. Thanks!

I provided them an inventory list (from Brickfolio actually) that we then had to enter into an online content collaboration program. They didn't ask for receipts, but I did have photos of the inventory from just a few weeks before and I think that went a long way. They did mention when we were finalizing my claim payment that normally they would require receipts to show proof of purchase.

Great to hear of a possible happy ending here.  The rule about no eyes on the goods is one that I have shared forever.  I do not allow anyone I don't know into my home to see what I own Lego-wise.  I will have CL folks say they want to stop by and I explain that that is a no-go and that I will meet them in public.  My fear is the same, that someone will break in looking for Lego that they know is there and much worse outcomes could then occur with it being my home vs. a storage locker that does not have family inside(at least it shouldn't ?).

I don't really like having service individuals in the house and see the sets on display but don't have much choice with HVAC and such.  It's probably very paranoid but stories like this validate the paranoia.

Again, happy for you that this could have a happy ending.

 

Once I got to a certain level of inventory...I had WiFi cameras set up in the garage and house. Yeah they could swipe em down once they get in and see the camera..but not before I get an alert and picture or video sent to my cell...at least that's the way it's supposed to work. Before I put them up.... I'd be paranoid if the garage door when up by mistake or what could be happening inside my place. No way to live...

Glad to see OP get this resolved

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Brickpicker Forum mobile app

I have my LEGO boobietrapped - If anyone removes the wrong set, my investment in those Death Stars will finally pay off.

I have my LEGO boobietrapped - If anyone removes the wrong set, my investment in those Death Stars will finally pay off.

I've encouraged my kids to litter their loose bricks haphazardly across the floor just for that purpose....

I'm glad they caught the guy!  I too pray your loss isn't too bad, that you are able to recover the older sets you want to give to your children when they are older and that your livelihood is restored.

When my son's sets were stolen during our move a couple of years ago, the people knew exactly what to take and leave.  It added up to $700 replacement value for my son.   My daughter's sets were packed with clothes (couldn't see or hear them).  I wasn't on bricklink or brickpicker at the time so we had no inventory.  In fact, it was the loss of the sets that originally brought me here and reinvigorated my love of LEGO.  

The way we submitted our claim was I created a spreadsheet with sets number, name, original purchase price (if I had receipts) and replacement value which was generated partially via brickpicker.  We had bought the insurance for "replacement value," which really helped a lot as they also ruined our bed by folding it in half... what movers store a bed folded in half?! *facepalm*  (For the record, United Van Lines contracted our move to some guy.  United told us they did the moving themselves, but we were stuck when the guy showed up at our door with too small of a truck.  That was the beginning of our move from hell).

Thankfully my son packed the instructions separately.  So I took pics of all the instructions (about 20 sets worth) and gave that to the moving company for our claim.  It took about 6 months and they finally paid us the replacement value.  I hope this goes smoothly for you and your sets don't get tied up as evidence for a long period of time.

**UPDATE**

It's been a long road, but here is my latest update.  Unfortunately, the prosecutor decided to offer the thief a "proffer" which basically gives him amnesty from prosecution if he admits to the crime and returns the stolen property as restitution. This was definitely against my wishes as well as the detectives from both police departments involved. The thief admitted to the crime, returned 118 of the 390 sets that were stolen (and none of the thousands of individual minifigures).

I just picked up the remaining inventory from the Police Property office today, and will start to look through everything and see what I can keep to build or sell off. I struck a deal with the insurance company to purchase the returned inventory for about 30% of the value of the sets (based on the original claim value). Obviously most of these sets have gone up in value since the theft, but the box conditions will probably knock some value off the high end.

I've been doing some research into filing a civil suit against him to recover more of the lost value of the stolen and sold sets, but the cost of litigation might be too great. Plus, he is a career criminal and even when I am awarded a judgement (he already admitted to doing the crime) I don't think I want someone in debt to me for the next 10+ years making small payments.

The ray of hope? The same thief is under investigation for a violent home invasion charge, which would get him 20 years in jail. The detectives hope to get him on that charge and make it stick. 

Side note: some of the returned sets were already boxed up to ship USPS Priority Mail with the sender information listed as Blooming Earlier Bricks. A quick check showed he had a Brick Link account, but the detectives said he was selling a lot of stuff on Ebay as well.

**UPDATE**
It's been a long road, but here is my latest update.  Unfortunately, the prosecutor decided to offer the thief a "proffer" which basically gives him amnesty from prosecution if he admits to the crime and returns the stolen property as restitution. This was definitely against my wishes as well as the detectives from both police departments involved. The thief admitted to the crime, returned 118 of the 390 sets that were stolen (and none of the thousands of individual minifigures).
I just picked up the remaining inventory from the Police Property office today, and will start to look through everything and see what I can keep to build or sell off. I struck a deal with the insurance company to purchase the returned inventory for about 30% of the value of the sets (based on the original claim value). Obviously most of these sets have gone up in value since the theft, but the box conditions will probably knock some value off the high end.
I've been doing some research into filing a civil suit against him to recover more of the lost value of the stolen and sold sets, but the cost of litigation might be too great. Plus, he is a career criminal and even when I am awarded a judgement (he already admitted to doing the crime) I don't think I want someone in debt to me for the next 10+ years making small payments.
The ray of hope? The same thief is under investigation for a violent home invasion charge, which would get him 20 years in jail. The detectives hope to get him on that charge and make it stick. 
Side note: some of the returned sets were already boxed up to ship USPS Priority Mail with the sender information listed as Blooming Earlier Bricks. A quick check showed he had a Brick Link account, but the detectives said he was selling a lot of stuff on Ebay as well.

That sucks. Did you move your warehouse? Because he knows what's there ....

10 minutes ago, Phil B said:

That sucks. Did you move your warehouse? Because he knows what's there ....

Willy Wonka has moved the factory... not even a golden ticket will get you in.

Sorry to hear about your loss and glad to hear you were at least compensated by insurance. A huge lesson for us with a large value of inventory: 1) don't do local meet ups at your home/storage area. Go to the parking lot of a police station or a high traffic public place. 2) have multiple storage locations. 3) Most importantly, have insurance in place.

Edited May 8, 20187 yr by tacsniper

My golden rules:

• I now NEVER keep sets at home. (it could even invalidate your house contents insurance unless you specify business activity!)
• I now NEVER allow buyers collect from home, I always meet them in a public place or at work and only accept cash.
• All sets are now stored in a 24-7 secure warehouse with CCTV and on-site security. (luckily this doesn't cost me. If it did, I'd not bother investing at all!)
• Every set is itemised on a manifest and my insurance company has a copy and I send an update every month.
• My eBay address as a business seller is wrong so that nobody knows where my sets are kept.