$16,000 Lego theft is no child’s play
Staff writer
Marion police chief Clinton Jeffrey’s Sunday morning call to investigate $16,000 worth of stolen Lego sets was a first, but he knew the loss was about more than toys to the owner.
“I never honestly thought we’d get a search warrant for Legos,” he said. “I mean, it’s just like anything else, a valuable item to somebody.”
Ninety-three collectible sets were stolen from a storage unit on N. Roosevelt St., and their values ranged from $5 to $965.
Jeffrey knew something was amiss because he saw three storage units open during his patrol that morning.
The owner, identified only by the last name of Lane, was deeply concerned about losing the valuable collection, Jeffrey said.
“They’re pretty upset when it’s something they’ve invested a lot of time and money into,” he said. “I don’t think it was any different than if it was a coin collection or something like that. It was something they had collected for years and it was pretty upsetting that they lost it all.”
Police were able to recover some of the sets within six hours thanks to reports from area residents, but half of the collectibles could not be found. The sets recovered accounted for 48 of the 93 stolen and had a combined value of $6,523.
“If no one had told us about anything we may never have found any of it,” Jeffrey said. “Or it may have been by pure chance at another point in time.”
Ashley B. Loomis, 32, Marion, and Ronald L. Pierce, 53, Marion, were arrested at 3:06 p.m. in the 400 block of S. 4th St. on suspicion of burglary, theft, and criminal damage to property.
Most of the boxes were sealed because they were collector’s items, but if any were opened then it would make finding them more difficult, Jeffrey said.
“If whoever has them decides to open them, then it would be nearly impossible to get them all back,” he said.