TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - A DPS investigation has led to at least two arrests in a $400,000 scheme to steal Lego sets from Walmart and Target stores across four states and resell them online.
In November, two men were arrested in Tarrant County in connection with this ring: Brian Keith Fleming, 33, and Ladarion Dontre Anderson, 33, both of Lancaster, Texas. In December, Fleming was booked into the Smith County Jail for charges associated with thefts from four East Texas stores. KLTV obtained a probable cause affidavit through an open records request that has revealed the details of the alleged scheme, which involves 10 people and has operated for at least two years.
On Oct. 14, 2022, a trooper noticed 19 unopened Cricut machines during a traffic stop. The affidavit says the driver was not able to give a credible story about why they were in the car or where they had come from. After arresting the person for another outstanding warrant, the trooper contacted Walmart Global Investigations and a Target investigator to determine the machines were in fact stolen, according to the document. Authorities obtained a search warrant for two cell phones that were in the car, and the text history on those devices launched an investigation that crossed state borders.
The phones revealed conversations about stealing Cricut machines to sell to a third person at a cut rate, the affidavit says. The texts also mentioned allegedly moving Lego sets in the same way. The United States postal inspector ran an investigation on the buyer, who was reportedly paying cash for the items then reselling them on Amazon, eBay and other online platforms, the affidavit says.
On March 14, 2024, a special agent in Texas was assigned to the case and learned from an Amazon investigator that the seller had handed over a number of invoices for Lego sets that named Fleming directly.
Investigation revealed that Fleming and Anderson were working together with a circle of five “shoppers” to steal the sets from stores across Texas, the affidavit says. The two were caught on Walmart surveillance video walking down the Lego aisle before buying a handful of other items, all in the $1-2 range. The document says one of the five shoppers would then go into the store and put a matching number of Lego sets into a cart before walking past the registers and out the door. If stopped, they would show the receipt for the items Fleming or Anderson had bought, with the names and prices changed. Investigators identified this pattern after detaining several of the shoppers.
The affidavit says Walmart and Target investigators estimated the combined total value of the items stolen to be over $400,000.
Invoices from the reseller show more than 500 Lego sets, with most bought at or below half of market price over just four months in 2024.
Fleming and Anderson have both been charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and theft over $300,000. Fleming was booked into the Smith County Jail on Dec. 6, and Anderson remains in the Tarrant County Corrections Center. Bond for the two charges has been set at $1,100,000.
The arrest documents show over 273 individual thefts, mainly from stores across Texas, but also including some in Oklahoma, Florida and Pennsylvania. In East Texas, the report includes stores in Tyler, Longview, Kilgore and Gun Barrel City. See the list below.
https://www.kltv.com/2024/12/09/texas-authorities-topple-400k-multi-state-lego-theft-ring/