TYLER, Texas (KLTV/Gray News) – Texas authorities arrested at least two men involved in a $400,000 scheme to steal Lego sets from Walmart and Target stores across four states and resell them online.
Brian Keith Fleming, 33, and Ladarion Dontre Anderson, 33, were arrested. According to an affidavit, the scheme involves 10 people and has operated for at least two years.
On Oct. 14, 2022, a trooper noticed 19 unopened Cricut machines during a traffic stop, and according to the affidavit, the driver could not explain why they were in the car or where the machines came from.
The driver was arrested for an outstanding warrant and the trooper reached out to Walmart and Target to determine if the machines were stolen.
Authorities obtained a search warrant for two cell phones that were in the car and the text history on those devices helped them launch an investigation that crossed state borders.
The phones revealed conversations about stealing Cricut machines to sell to a third person at a cut rate, according to the affidavit. The texts also mentioned doing the same with Lego sets.
The United States postal inspector ran an investigation on the buyer, who was reportedly paying cash for the items and then reselling them on Amazon, eBay and other online platforms, according to the affidavit.
On March 14, a special agent in Texas was assigned to the case and learned from an Amazon investigator that the seller had handed over a number of invoices for Lego sets that named Fleming directly.
The investigation revealed that Fleming and Anderson were working together with a circle of five “shoppers” to steal the sets from stores across Texas, the affidavit says.
Fleming and Anderson were caught on Walmart surveillance video walking down the Lego aisle before buying a handful of other items, all in the $1 to $2 range.
The document says one of the five shoppers would then go into the store and put a matching number of Lego sets into a cart before walking past the registers and out the door.
If stopped, they would show the receipt for the items Fleming or Anderson had bought, with the names and prices changed. Investigators identified this pattern after detaining several of the shoppers.
The affidavit says Walmart and Target investigators estimated the combined total value of the items stolen to be over $400,000.
Invoices from the reseller show more than 500 Lego sets were resold at or below half of the market price over just four months in 2024.
Fleming and Anderson have both been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and theft over $300,000.
The arrest documents show over 273 individual thefts, mainly from stores across Texas, but also in Oklahoma, Florida and Pennsylvania.
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