Stolen Lego sets worth nearly $30,000 found in California desert

Southern California law enforcement officials stumbled upon an abandoned vehicle in the desert containing Lego sets worth nearly $30,000, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department announced Wednesday. 

Read more Calif. man, 22, allegedly stabbed 5 at Thunder Valley Casino

According to the Sheriff’s Department’s news release, on Monday around 11:30 p.m., Barstow officials discovered the Lego sets inside an unoccupied van at National Trails Highway and Pioneer Road in Newberry Springs. The van held 123 boxes of stolen McLaren F1 Lego sets, which are valued at about $230 per set. Police with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad confirmed that the sets were taken during a train robbery. 

In California, the Lego black market is already well established: In 2024, a series of Lego robberies spanning from Southern California to as far east as Pennsylvania made headlines across the country, inspiring “Inside Edition” to call it “Lego Larceny,” SFGATE previously reported. That year, thieves stole merchandise totaling more than $100,000 in value from Bricks & Minifigs reseller locations in areas like Ontario and Riverside, and CHP’s Organized Retail Crime Taskforce seized stolen toys worth about $300,000, CBS reported.  

Rail company BNSF is well aware of the Lego theft, and representatives said the company is working with state and federal law enforcement to bolster security. 

“We decline to comment on specific incidents, but this case highlights the serious and growing threat that organized cargo theft poses to public safety, law enforcement, and the nation’s supply chain,” BNSF spokesperson Kendall Sloan told SFGATE. In a by Will Johnson, the BNSF police department’s chief special agent, Johnson said robbers — ranging from random “opportunists” to “Transnational Organized Crime Members” — have been stealing cargo like designer shoes and construction tools from freight trains, contributing to a growing trend. 

Read more Arrest made 18 years after SF man killed on eve of his wedding

To make the trains grind to a halt, suspects will sabotage rail signals and braking systems, Johnson said in the testimony. In 2024 alone, an estimated 65,000 train thefts took place, according to the Association of American Railroads, a 40% increase from 2023, he testified. A BNSF train carrying lithium batteries even once caught fire during a burglary, SFGATE reported. 

“Freight rail cargo theft is no longer isolated or opportunistic—” says the Association of American Railroads’ website. “It is organized, sophisticated, and growing.”