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A man has been taken into custody for allegedly executing a scheme that involved purchasing LEGO sets, substituting the pieces with dried pasta, and then returning the altered sets, leading to significant financial losses for Target.
“Yes, you read that correctly,” stated the Irvine Police Department in California in a Facebook post dated April 16. “We are indeed discussing durum wheat semolina pasta, in what can only be described as a pasta-tively terrible plan.”
Jarrelle Augustine now faces charges of grand theft and is being held in the Orange County Jail, according to the police statement. It remains unclear if Augustine has entered a plea to the charges.
The investigation into the 28-year-old began in December when he purchased and subsequently returned two LEGO sets valued at $350, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.
“LEGO pieces and pasta essentially produce the same sound,” explained Irvine Police spokesperson Ziggy Azarcon to the publication. “It’s a creative approach, that’s for sure. This is something our team had never encountered before, so it was certainly unique for our investigators to piece together this puzzle.”
Azarcon told Oxygen that in some cases, Augustine allegedly removed key pieces, without adding pasta, before returning the sets.
Augustine was arrested at his Paramount apartment, Azarcon told Oxygen. There, police found enough Lego pieces to fill two garbage bags, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Target reported at least 70 thefts nationwide tied to the same suspect, stacking up about $34,000 in losses,” police shared on Facebook. “That’s a lot of missing pieces.”
In a surveillance video included in the police Facebook post, a suspect was seen grabbing LEGO boxes from store shelves and later exiting the store. Elsewhere in the video, a photo showed a $499 Marvel Avengers-themed set surrounded by bags of pasta.
“Everything was awesome in this LEGO crime spree until we got involved,” police wrote. “Like most bad builds, this one didn’t hold together.”
“If your master plan involves swapping LEGOs for linguine,” they continued, “we can promise your plan will be cooked al dente.”
Oxygen did not locate an attorney for Augustine.
Spokespeople from LEGO and Target did not immediately return requests for comment from Oxygen.