Overview
- Irvine police say Jarrelle Augustine, 28, was booked on a grand theft charge after an arrest at an apartment in Paramount.
- Detectives say he bought pricey Lego sets at Target, removed valuable pieces or filled the boxes with dried pasta, then returned them for refunds.
- Investigators link the scheme to roughly 70 incidents across several states with about $34,000 in stolen or damaged merchandise.
- Credit card records tied Augustine to earlier suspicious returns in Orange County that totaled about $4,000 since November.
- A search recovered two garbage bags of loose Lego pieces, and police place the case within a broader wave of Lego thefts reported nationwide in 2024 and 2025.