Irvine police have arrested a man accused of stealing Lego pieces by removing them from their boxes and filling them with dried pasta. The suspect then returned the boxes to Target to be returned.
The program — carried out in states across the country — added up to $34,000 in stolen or damaged property in 70 known or suspected incidents, according to investigators.
Jarrelle Augustine, 28, is charged with theft and was sentenced Tuesday in the Orange County Jail. He was arrested at a Paramount apartment but is from Texas, said Ziggy Azarcon, public information officer for the Irvine Police Department.
According to Irvine police, the department became involved in December after Augustine purchased and returned two Lego sets – with a combined value of $350 – at a Target store in Irvine. He was linked to other suspicious merchandise returns through credit card records. In all, he may be responsible for approximately $4,000 in stolen or damaged merchandise at Targets in Orange County since November, Azarcon said.
Police say Augustine identified Lego sets with high value pieces, bought them and brought them to his residence. Sometimes, he would just remove the important pieces, police said. Sometimes, police said, he would exchange the entire set for dried pasta.
When you shake the Lego boxes with the changed contents, “they actually make the same sound,” Azarcon said. “The art – that’s for sure. This is something we’ve never seen done before, so it was really unique for our investigators to be able to piece this together piece by piece.”
At the suspect’s residence, investigators found enough Lego pieces to fill two garbage bags. Although the method of the alleged robbery was different, the identification of Lego is not.
Lego thefts have been recorded across the country, many with high prices.
In Charlotte, NC, a former Wells Fargo banker was accused of “fencing” hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of “high-value” Lego products stolen from Walmart and Target stores.
In that case, a jury found Ryan Thomas Cahill guilty in November 2025 of receiving or possessing merchandise obtained through organized retail theft over $100,000, according to published reports.
In 2024, the Los Angeles police announced that they would uncover a Lego theft ring. Police arrested two people and seized more than 2,800 boxes of Lego toys from a Long Beach home. Individual boxes range in price from $20 to over $1,000.
While the police were conducting their investigation at the suspect’s house, “some people came to buy toys, attracted by the advertisements placed … on internet sales sites,” said the police.
At the same time, investigators were trying to uncover a possibly unrelated local theft ring targeting Lego toys. The suspects ransacked the stores, after closing time, smashed the windows and headed straight for the overpriced Lego sets.
Other recent cases in San José; Santa Rosa; The Mojave; Albuquerque, NM; and Eugene, Ore. The Oregon case allegedly involved the purchase of stolen Lego sets from various retailers to be resold at a different store. More than 4,000 sets were found, police said.
High value pieces or miniature figures include those associated with themed characters or superheroes. Examples include pieces related to Marvel, “Star Wars” or Harry Potter.
As for the recent arrest, it is not clear what Augustine did with the pieces, but there is no indication that he was using them to play art in his living room.
“We don’t know exactly what he was doing, but we know there is a secondary market that can sell these collected figures,” Azarcon said.
