© The Associated PressThomas Langenbach, a Silicon Valley technology executive, is facing charges after authorities say he changed the bar codes on Lego toys at a Target store to buy them for less.
Thomas Langenbach, 46, declined Tuesday to enter a plea when he was formally charged. A hearing was scheduled for June 20.
"In his house, we found hundreds of boxes of unopened Lego sets," Mountain View police spokesman Liz Wylie told the San Jose Mercury News.
Langenbach and his partner Maggie Hoang lived in a $1.8 million house on Sudan Lane in San Carlos, Calif., near the Palo Alto offices of German software giant SAP (Systems, Applications and Products), where he had worked since 1988.
Langenbach allegedly sold 2,100 Lego toys on eBay over the last 13 months for $30,000, police said.
"I don't think it's money," said Supervising Deputy District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson, who is prosecuting Langenbach.
"Money might have been a part of what brought him pleasure, but I think all indications are there's something way more complex here," Hendrickson was quoted by the San Jose Mercury News.
"Remember, he's going out and paying for these things. This is something that he did in a painstaking way, and it took time, it took effort and it took expense. I don't think you do that just for the money. There had to be something else. Beating the system? An element of compulsion?"
The eBay selling handle allegedly used by Langenbach to unload thousands of boxed Lego toys was still busy the day he was arrested.
"Tomsbrickyard" last sold a Castle Green Troll Orc Warrer Minifigure for $16.99 on Monday evening, eBay records show.
He had a 99.9 per cent positive rating,
On Monday, the eBay member tomsbrickyard also sold a Lego Star Wars C-3PO R2-D2 minifigure and escape pod for $15.99 and a Lego Star Wars A4-D Medical Droid and repair lab for $8.49.
Tomsbrickyard sold a few toys every day to people in the United States and Canada, sometimes four at a time to the same buyer. He seldom missed a day's selling since joining eBay on April 17, 2011.
Examples of his thefts included a $279 box of Millenium Falcon Lego he bought for $49 and a $90 Anakin Skywalker Lego set he got for $35, said Hendrickson.
Langenbach's house also was filled with Lego creations he had built himself, authorities said
Eight baggies of bar code stickers were found in his car, police said.
Langenbach was allegedly spotted by two security guards at a Target store in Cupertino buying two Lego items at reduced prices on April 20. The same day, he bought two more Lego sets at discount prices at the Target in Mountain View and Target put him under surveillance, police said.
When he allegedly pasted his homemade discount bar code on a Lego box on May 8, store detectives arrested him, police said.
I'm hesitant to put this guy on the scumbag list. Obviously passionate for these toys, uses them himself. Has a lot of time, money, and mental energy involved in the affair. Maybe he has been playing Robin Hood, making these obviously overpriced pieces of plastic more accessible to buyers in these times of economic hardship? Maybe some personal vendetta to settle with old classmates-cum-exectutives at these toy companies? Anyways, it will be interesting to see how this story develops!