SAP Vice President Thomas Langenbach has been arrested for theft thanks to a scheme that saw him steal thousands of dollars worth of Lego from retail giant target. The executive is said to have created fake barcodes which he then took to the store and pasted over the real barcodes on boxes of Lego. He then purchased the modified boxes at a discount and sold them online.
Mercury News reports that when authorities visited Langenbach's $2 million home, they found hundreds of Lego sets and a bag of barcode stickers in his car. He apparently made thousands of dollars selling the sets on eBay under the username "tomsbrickyard." However, investigators are also said to have found many sets of Lego that he had built, separated in bricks by color, type, and size.
Langenback apparently visited several Target stores to carry out his scam but also hit some stores more than once and was observed visiting more than one store in a day. Mr. Langenbach was caught on May 8 at at Target in Mountain View. He reportedly placed his own barcodes on multiple items and then checked them on the store's aisle scanners to make sure they were scanning through at his discounted price. Store security apprehended him as soon as he left the store with an item he had not paid full price for.
The 47-year-old appeared in court today on four counts of burglary.
