[Software giant] SAP exec charged in Lego bar code scam

[mohican]

An SAP Labs executive is facing charges that he made fake barcode stickers for Lego toys at Target stores, switched out the real price tags and bought them at steep discounts.

Thomas Langenbach, a 47-year-old San Carlos resident, was arrested on May 8 and faces burglary charges for switching the barcodes on several boxes of Legos worth about $900. He is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Santa Clara County court, according to NBC Bay Area .

According to Langenbach’s LinkedIn profile, he is a vice president at the SAP Integration & Certification Center in Palo Alto and has worked for SAP since 1988.

Target reportedly first caught onto the scam when Langenbach bought two Lego sets with discounted bar codes at a Cupertino store on April 20. He had marked down a $120 set to $50, and a $70 set to $25, Mountain View police spokeswoman Liz Wylie said.

“Because Legos are so expensive and because they’re a popular item to steal, Target keeps really close track of inventory,” Wylie said. “They realized something was off, based on what they had sold and how much money they had made that day.”

Target investigators said they used their security cameras to see Langenbach switching the barcodes, and distributed flyers with his picture to Target security in the Bay Area, Wylie said. A loss prevention officer reportedly noticed him walking into the Target on Showers Drive in Mountain View on May 8. The store’s security said they saw him switch another barcode and buy a set of Legos at a discount, detained him outside the store and called police.

Langenbach also reportedly switched price tags at the Mountain View Target on May 1 and at a San Carlos location on April 26, including marking down a $280 set to $50, Wylie said.

Langenbach apparently resold the Legos on eBay, Wylie said. Police said they found hundreds of unopened Lego boxes at his home, and Ziploc baggies full of barcodes at his house and in his car.

He had an active eBay account where he had sold 2,100 items for a total of $30,000 since last April, though it’s not clear all of the items sold were Legos, Wylie said.

It wasn’t entirely a commercial operation, though.

“He obviously enjoyed Legos on a personal basis because there were constructed Lego sets all around the house,” Wylie said.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/n....html?page=all

[mohican]

This is the first I've heard of such case where someone makes fake bar code and slap them on products at a store and actually walk out with the products.

[sadaist]

This is the first I've heard of such case where someone makes fake bar code and slap them on products at a store and actually walk out with the products.

Oh no....happens a ton. People peel off a barcode sticker from a cheap item & stick it over the expensive item. I worked at Target in 1993 as a cashier. But I looked at the register to see the name of each item I scanned. it read "Tacklebox $2.95"...instead of the $250 bread maker. I then peeled off the barcode sticker for a tacklebox to reveal the TRUE barcode. At that point the customer decided she did not want the item.

I was made employee of the month for theft prevention.



*Side note...although employee of the month for theft prevention in 1993, I wasn't even supposed to step foot into ANY Target anywhere in the world since I myself was caught shoplifting a Whitesnake cassette there in 1987 and permanently banned. Just shows how good their record keeping is.

[mohican]

Banned from Target for life for stealing a Whitesnake cassette is a pretty good story.

My bad, I speed read the article and jumped to conclusion that the dude, being a high level software techie, was able to replicate Target bar code at home and brought the labels to the store.

[sadaist]

Banned from Target for life for stealing a Whitesnake cassette is a pretty good story.

.

Especially since a few short years later i was employee of the month for theft prevention.

One of my favorite life experience stories.

But yeah man, the stickers come off easy & people swap all the time.

[mohican]

But yeah man, the stickers come off easy & people swap all the time.

Well then, I will have an iPad after all

[ODShowtime]

addicted to Legos, huh?

[qikgts]

What a fuckin dumb ass... I hope someone makes an example out of him.