In a case straight out of a crime thriller, Texas police have dismantled a sophisticated LEGO toy theft ring, proving that even toys can be serious business for criminals.

Who knew that the bricks your kids leave out scattered in the middle of the floor that also feels like near death when you step on one barefoot, were worth so much money to criminals?

Police recently uncovered a operation, which spanned multiple states, that involved the theft and resale of high-value LEGO sets, with suspects targeting major retail stores and stockrooms.

It All Began With A Traffic Stop.

A Department of Public Safety trooper first noticed 19 new Cricut electronic cutting machines sitting in the back of a vehicle during a traffic stop in October of 2022 according to a report from KETK.

The driver of that vehicle was arrested for an unrelated warrant and the machines were ultimately traced back to the Walmart that they were allegedly stolen from and a search warrant was reportedly obtained for the driver’s phone.

The Driver Was Receiving Texts From Shane Joel Gentry Of Lancaster, TX.

Gentry was allegedly texting that driver in order to buy the Cricut machines at a low price. An investigation then discovered that Gentry was allegedly selling the items on eBay and Amazon.

But Gentry wasn't working alone, he also had help from another man from Lancaster, Brian Fleming. Gentry provided Amazon with several invoices for items from Fleming.

Fleming and another man were reportedly caught on video in a Walmart Lego aisle before they went and bought several low cost items. Fleming would then leave the store and several others involved in the ring would come in and pick out the same amount of items that Fleming had bought but from the Lego aisle.

They would then leave the store without purchasing the Legos and would present an altered version of Fleming’s original receipt if stopped. The receipt would reportedly be altered to list the Legos and the correct prices of those Legos even though the SKU number listed was still for the original items purchased by Fleming.

More than $400,000 in products were stolen this way.

The theft ring stole from several Walmart and Target stores in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania Florida and Texas, including stores in Longview, Tyler, Kilgore and Gun Barrel City.

Fleming and Gentry were both charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and theft of property over $300,000. Fleming is currently being held in the Smith County Jail on a total bond of $1,100,000. Gentry was booked into Smith County Jail on Nov. 21 and was released on Nov. 22.