California man charged in $34,000 Lego pasta-and-switch theft scheme

A Paramount man’s alleged Lego return scam stretched far beyond Orange County, with police saying repeated swaps of high-end sets for dried pasta cost Target about $34,000 nationwide. Irvine police said the case involved at least 70 thefts tied to 28-year-old Jarrelle Augustine, turning a quirky trick into a serious retail-fraud investigation.

Authorities said Augustine bought expensive Lego sets, including Star Wars and Marvel kits, removed the mini figures and other valuable pieces, and in some cases replaced them with durum wheat semolina pasta before bringing the boxes back for refunds. Investigators said the pasta was chosen because it could mimic the sound and weight of Lego bricks when a box was shaken, making the return look more convincing at the counter.

Police said surveillance helped identify Augustine after cameras captured a man entering a Target in Irvine, browsing the Lego section and leaving with two large box sets. Irvine police then tracked him to an apartment in Los Angeles County and arrested him on April 16, 2026. He was booked into Orange County Jail on grand theft charges.

The alleged fraud was not limited to one store. CBS Los Angeles reported that refunds were allegedly obtained at Target locations in Costa Mesa, Irvine and Westminster, and that police linked the same suspect to cases in Texas, Tennessee, New Jersey and Florida. ABC7 Los Angeles reported that Target said the nationwide thefts tied to Augustine totaled about $34,000. NBC Los Angeles reported that he had bought Lego sets from Target stores at least 70 times and replaced the figurines with the dried pasta.

Irvine police and local television stations also underscored the oddity of the case with humor-filled social media posts, calling it a “pasta-tively terrible plan,” a “bad build” that “didn’t hold together,” and warning that the suspect’s master plan was “cooked al dente.” Behind the jokes, though, sits a familiar retail problem: return policies designed for convenience can become easy targets for organized theft, pushing costs onto merchants and, eventually, shoppers. Cases like this also show how police must treat supposedly comic schemes as financial crime with interstate reach, not just internet-ready oddities.