The SAP Vice President Who Was Secretly a Lego Thief

On the surface, Thomas Langenbach had it all. A $2 million home with a killer view high up in the hills of San Carlos, California; a wife; two children; a nanny; and a prestigious job as a vice president at technology giant SAP.

But when police searched his home on May 8, 2012, they found something else: meticulously sorted bins filled with Lego pieces, and hundreds of Lego toys — some displayed next to bottles of booze on the family bar, others snapped together in front of a whiteboard as if being staged for photography, many more in boxes jammed into an office closet.

Investigators alleged that Langenbach had been running a systematic shoplifting operation, stealing Lego sets from Target stores across the Bay Area and reselling them on eBay under the seller name "tomsbrickyard." The alleged method was almost comically methodical: Target's own investigation had flagged the pattern — the same customer buying up specific sets at multiple stores, paying at self-checkout while concealing additional items, then listing the same products online at a markup.

Prosecutors charged him with four felony counts of second-degree burglary. SAP placed him on leave.

The case became a minor internet legend — the "Lego thief" with the executive salary and the hillside mansion — precisely because it made no sense in conventional terms. Kleptomania, greed, thrill: the motives debated online were all speculative. What was documented was the contrast: a man who could buy every Lego set in the store, allegedly stealing them instead.

This article summarizes contemporaneous reporting from May 2012, including coverage by the San Jose Mercury News. It reports on charges and allegations, not findings of guilt.