A Silicon Valley executive has been charged with four felony counts of burglary for allegedly stealing LEGO toys from area Target stores, the Mercury News reports.
Santa Clara County prosecutors said Monday that Thomas Langenbach, vice president at SAP Labs' Integration & Certification Center, affixed false barcodes to packages of LEGOs in stores that allowed him to purchase expensive sets at substantial discounts.
NBC Bay Area reports that the executive was formally charged with switching tickets on seven boxes of LEGOs worth about $1,000 total.
But hundreds of unopened LEGO boxes were found when police search Langenbach's $2 million San Carlos home. The executive had apparently been selling the merchandise on eBay for profit.
"He sold 2,100 items in just over a year on eBay, and made $30,000," a spokeswoman for the Mountain View Police Department told the Mercury News.
Langenbach, whose eBay user name was "tomsbrickyard," seems to have received high ratings from buyers.
Authorities also found eight Ziploc baggies containing dozens of bar code stickers in Langenbach's car.
According to the Mercury News, Target security "set off a quiet dragnet" after Langenbach was observed purchasing Lego sets at extremely discounted prices from two area stores on April 20.
Opposing Views reports that Target "used their security cameras to see Langenbach switching the barcodes, and distributed flyers with his picture to Target security in the Bay Area."
Langenbach was arrested on May 8 while attempting to buy more "discounted" LEGO sets.
The Huffington Post contacted Target to determine whether SAP Labs and the retailer shared a business relationship that might have facilitated Langenbach's barcode scheme. A spokesperson for Target said that the company does not disclose details of its vendor relationships.
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The Huffington Post | Posted: 05/22/2012 4:53 pm Updated: 05/22/2012 4:53 pm