Let go of those Leggos!!!

[ph4ever]

http://www.oregonlive.com/metrowest/ore ... xml&coll=7

Investigators building case in Lego thefts
Bar code switch - Officers say a man puts codes off lower-cost toys on high-price ones
Friday, November 18, 2005
KATHLEEN GORMAN
WEST SLOPE -- The name Lego comes from the Danish words "leg godt," which translates to "play well."

It's a lesson William A. Swanberg could learn.

On Thursday morning, Washington County sheriff's investigators searched Swanberg's van and say they found it packed with the stuff of Christmas dreams: dozens of high-priced Lego toys.

Swanberg, 40, of Reno, Nev., was arrested the day before at the Target just east of Oregon 217 on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway.

Sheriff's investigators and the retailer's security officers accused Swanberg of theft. They say he cheated Target stores in five Western states by using fake bar codes to buy more than $115,000 worth of Lego toy sets for 20 cents on the dollar.

Washington County sheriff's Detective Troy Dolyniuk said Swanberg ran a scam to acquire and resell the toys across the West. The detective offered this account:

Swanberg would take a real bar code from a cheaper Lego set and reprint it on a sticker he would slap on an expensive Lego set.

When Swanberg went through the checkout line at a Target, he would hand the store clerk the item with the fraudulent bar code and show a pile of the same items in his cart, the detective said. To speed things along, the clerk would scan the faked bar code sticker multiple times.

Swanberg later sold the items for nearly the full retail price on eBay, Dolyniuk said.

He was an efficient shopper. Dolyniuk said the van's contents show he had hit seven Portland-area Target stores on Wednesday -- five in Multnomah County and two in Washington County.

Swanberg was detained by an employee of the Target on Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway about 2 p.m. Wednesday and arrested just before 5 p.m.

He was arraigned Thursday on two charges of first-degree theft and held in Washington County Jail on $250,000 bail.

When authorities looked through the tinted windows of Swanberg's van early Thursday, they could see stacks of Lego toys. They tallied 56 Star Wars Millennium Falcon sets (with a $98.99 sticker price); 22 Star Wars Ultimate Space Battle sets ($49.99); five Harry Potter sets; and three large Ferrari F1 Large Racers ($69.99).

Dolyniuk said the Ferrari sets trace back to a Toys R Us.

The detective credited the sharp eyes of Target's corporate security people for tracking Swanberg and catching him in time for the holidays.

"Hopefully, we kept him from spoiling some kid's Christmas," Dolyniuk said.

Kathleen Gorman: 503-294-5958; kathleengorman@news.oregonian .com

[Ilph]

Will they make him build his own jail cell?