Store owner facing charges after $200,000 worth of Lego sets recovered in store

By Aaron Arellano

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    EUGENE, Oregon (KEZI) — At least 4,153 stolen Lego sets — valued at over $200,000 — were recovered after a months-long organized crime investigation revealed a store owner was knowingly purchasing the sets from suspected thieves, according to Springfield Police.

A spokesperson for Springfield Police Department said 47-year old Ammon Henrikson is facing at least one organized retail theft charge after he knowingly bought stolen Lego sets from suspects who stole them from Springfield and Eugene-area stores like Target on Gateway, Walmart, Barnes and Noble and Fred Meyer.

Albert Nash, an alleged partner and employee of Henrikson, is also facing charges for the retail crime bust.

Henrikson owns toy and Lego store Brick Builders in Eugene. Sergeant Kyle Potter, who oversees Springfield Police’s Crime Reduction Unit, said the investigation into the alleged thefts spanned three months. During the investigation, police officials witnessed suspected retail thieves leave a retail store after robbing it of high-priced Lego sets and head straight to Brick Builders.

“We would watch people go into the store with Lego and come out with cash in hand,” he said. “At that point we would stop people, we’d talk to them and they’d tell us exactly what they did.“

He said a lot of the suspects investigators spoke with after the alleged cash-in trade were upset with what they got in return for the stolen sets.

“They were usually disgruntled on the amount of cash they got and when we talked to them, It was pennies on the dollars for what it was actually worth!” Potter said.

After the Crime Reduction Unit partnered up with the victims of the alleged retail crimes – big-name retailers — they identified stolen items within Brick Builders.

On July 3, a search warrant was executed.

“We took our CMU and waited for store to open and presented the owners of the store with the warrants and that time we went inside and searched the place and found over 4,000 boxes of stolen Legos,” Potter said.

Potter said Henrikson was knowingly purchasing the stolen Lego sets and another Springfield Police official confirms Henrikson may have been instructing the suspects to acquire specific Lego sets from the retail stores.

Potter said a majority of the suspects would go straight from Brick Builders after cashing in and taking their money straight to their drug dealers to acquire illegal drugs.

Justin Williams is visiting from from Fort Worth, Texas and passed by Brick Builders on Tuesday when he heard the news of the massive bust.

“I mean retail theft has gotten out of hand nationwide, I never thought Legos played a part in it,” he said. “It tells me [about] the leniency on punishing people that are committing shoplifting and reselling to establishments that are aware of it. It needs to be cracked down and taken more seriously and have harsher consequences,” he said.

“I was surprised as the amount of Legos primarily, but theft in general from these big retail stores in town that was most surprising to me,” Potter said.

When asked how local law enforcement will continue to fight the ongoing battle against organized retail crime, Potter said it’s all about commitment.

“The most important thing to remember is we’re committed. Springfield police is not going to stop,” he said. ”We’re going to continue to fight this fight and with the retailer partners in the community willing to help us.”

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