'Brazen' thieves steal £4,650 of Lego from Nottinghamshire shops in two-day spree
Three "brazen" thieves stole Lego from shops worth £4,650 in a two-day spree.
The men, all from London, took "high-value" kits of the plastic play bricks from B&M stores in Nottinghamshire on 29 and 30 August, police said.
They included Lego-branded Minecraft sets and Disney Princess castles.
Officers launched a "manhunt" after the kits were piled into reusable shopping bags and lifted from the stores in Worksop, Mansfield and Netherfield.
The thieves - dressed in T-shirts, shorts and baseball caps - were caught when an officer spotted a "vehicle full of toys" in the Newark area on 31 August.
Checks were carried out and a team of officers stopped the vehicle as it travelled along the A17.
"All three male occupants were then arrested and later charged with three counts of theft," Nottinghamshire Police said.
Conlon McDonagh, 22, of Gregory Road, Southall, west London, Tom McDonagh, 22, of Greenwood Avenue, Enfield, north London, and Patrick Ward, 22, of Gregory Road, also in Southall, admitted theft at Nottingham Magistrates' Court on 2 September.
They were each jailed for 18 weeks, suspended for 12 months.
The trio were also banned from entering any B&M store in England and Wales for a year.
Sergeant Antony Coleman said "suspicions were aroused by the considerable amount of Lego in the vehicle", adding that "these brazen thieves were all swiftly caught".
He added: "They travelled to Nottinghamshire to commit these high-value thefts, thinking they could get away with it.
"They were wrong."
