Comments on: LEGO landmarks taken in $6,500 vehicle burglary [NEWS]

By: SavaTheAggie

SavaTheAggie — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:25:12 +0000

Fantastic news! Some of the LEGO has been recovered.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_14418471

By: ILikePi

ILikePi — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 05:33:57 +0000

This is horrible, especially since Mark lives in the exact same city as me! :(

By: Thanel

Thanel — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 01:55:13 +0000

Mark Nelson Jr: All a meth user needs is enough to get high. $40 is enough to stay high for a day, and those that are at the vehicle burglary level usually aren’t thinking much more than a day out.

MV: Just the contents of the vehicle. A vehicle burglary with grand theft, not a vehicle theft.

kunert: Tweakers are scoping everyone’s stuff out, it ain’t personal.

Creative Anarchy: You’re pretty much right about car burglars not caring at all about value to the owners. Oddly enough, theft is a very selfish crime.

While I have the platform for the PSA, it’s worth pointing out that many commonly overlooked items such as receipts and junk mail left in cars are plenty tempting for burglars who have connections to ID theft rings. Also, report any burglary with as much detailed information about the loss as possible. It’s shocking how much unidentified unreported–obviously stolen–property is recovered in receiving/possessing stolen property cases.

By: Creative Anarchy

Creative Anarchy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:40:38 +0000

Nobody deserves to have things they love taken from them. While a thief understands the marketable value of legos they don’t probably come close to understanding the attachment we have to the stuff. They only see an ambiguous product that can be moved quickly for untracable income, a high ratio or proffit to risk. I don’t revel in seeing someone’s trust of their neighbors cost them a huge portion of their lego collection. More so I want others to be conscious of what thieves see when they spot a huge bulk of legos in the back of an unwatched vehicle.

By: zak

zak — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:49:39 +0000

Technically, that’s an AP story, so it’s now showing up everywhere.

By: zak

zak — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:04:47 +0000

The story made the SF Chronicle

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2010/02/11/state/n095453S26.DTL

Hope he gets his stuff back :(

By: kunert

kunert — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:26:34 +0000

I’ll keep an eye on the nearby Sacramento craigslist, for what it’s worth. I do anyway. I hate crime. I’m seeing a real upsurge of theft lately in my little circle. And it’s hard to resist the admonishment tendency, because I feel like meth addicts are constantly scoping anything of mine that’s not nailed down, and I’d be really surprised if this was the victim’s first experience of this type.

By: MV

MV — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:41:23 +0000

Wait…was the vehicle stolen or just the Lego from it? Sucks either way.

By: Marc Nelson Jr.

Marc Nelson Jr. — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:33:14 +0000

I’d always assumed no one would want to steal LEGO. What kind of money are they possibly going to get for that stuff? A pawn shop might give you $40 for the lot.

By: Thanel

Thanel — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:27:54 +0000

I’m totally w/ proudlove on this. I’m absolutely sure Mark is already beating himself up over this, not really our place to get a few extra kicks in.

By: proudlove

proudlove — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:15:05 +0000

Ouch! Why don’t you just come out and say it. “Mark deserved to lose that Lego for being stupid.” C’mon, I bet he feels foolish enough, the last thing he wants to hear is how the theft could have been avoided. If you don’t have all the facts, you should probably not say anything at all. People are far too quick to offer ‘should have’ statements any time something like this happens. Mark, I feel for you man, that is a truly crappy deal.

By: Creative Anarchy

Creative Anarchy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:50:29 +0000

The last thing I want to seem is unsympathetic but leaving a ton of brick out in a parking area for a week is a bad plan. I think we tend to think of our bricks as not being something that people would steal because despite their expense people outside the AFOL seem to have so little regard for our hobby. But savvy thieves understand the resale value of highly popular children’s toys. I don’t know if Mark Benz is reading but I’d bet if he checks the 2nd hand stores within 5 miles of the parking lot his truck was in he’ll find his bricks for sale cheap. Probably pawned for someone’s next fix.

By: fallentomato

fallentomato — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:15:37 +0000

I too have been the victim of lego theft, though mine was just a dozen bucket of basic blocks, it was still a sad day. I hope that this story will have a happy ending.

By: Jean C

Jean C — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:35:24 +0000

This incident also highlights the need to properly, and if possible subtly, label MOCs and key elements. Passport numbers engraved with a Dremel tool on 9V train motors are an excellent deterrent to theft.

By: SavaTheAggie

SavaTheAggie — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:16:24 +0000

As an up and coming train builder who has devoted a few years of my life into my train MOCs, I can certainly feel for Mr. Benz’ situation. It would be a nightmare if it were to happen to me.

At the same time, however, it serves as a stark reminder that we all must remain vigilant, and not take chances. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today, like unpack your car. Every excellent MOC that a builder from our community creates pushes our hobby just a little more into the mainstream and adds just that much more value to our little bricks.