Lego larceny: Puyallup-area pawnshop owner sentenced for sales of stolen toys

Lego sets can be a lot of things. To some they are a tried and true children’s toy, bringing joy to the entire family. For others, they are carefully handled collectibles meant simply to sit pretty and decorate living spaces.

For two pawnshop brokers in Puyallup, they proved to be a lucrative trade — until law enforcement exposed their pilfered purchases.

Anthony Wayne Neely, 59, and Brian Lauman, 56, were convicted of intentionally selling large amounts of stolen Lego sets through an online retailer out of South Hill Rare Coin LLC, in the 14000 block of Meridian East.

Neely, the company’s owner, was sentenced Friday in Pierce County Superior Court. The span: 180 days of confinement and 184 days of suspension on Friday for two counts of attempted trafficking in stolen property in the first degree, as well as the crime of duty to record information.

Neely was also fined $2,500 for each of the two trafficking charges, and $100,000 for failure to properly record information.

After pleading guilty in September to the gross misdemeanor charge of attempted trafficking in stolen property in the second degree, Lauman, a former employee, received a suspended sentence of 364 days and the option to not serve any time given he stays out of trouble for a year.

Their respective sentences followed a 2023 sting operation by the Puyallup Police Department after detectives were tipped off that individuals were stealing expensive Lego sets and selling them to the business. Court records describe the investigation.

Over the course of 9 months, officers conducted several undercover Lego sales with Neely and Lauman, piecing together their case brick by brick.

In March 2023 an undercover Puyallup officer came to the shop with $120 worth of Lego sets and sold them to Lauman for $20. The employee did not take any identification from the officer during this interaction.

The same officer returned in June 2023 with Lego sets covered in “Spider Wrap” anti-theft devices, which are cables attached to an alarm that sounds when cut or taken past sensors.

Neely did not accept the items with the security measures but when asked said he could accept the items after the Spider Wrap was removed, case documents say. Neely denied this during his testimony.

The undercover officer then went outside briefly to cut off the wrap and returned to the counter to sell the sets to Neely for $80. Following this, the officers saw one of the items he sold listed on an SHRC eBay account.

The business is located about 1.5 miles between two different Target stores that allegedly had some of the highest rates of thefts in the Seattle area.

According to case documents, Target Loss Prevention staffers also observed multiple people steal large amounts of “high-theft items” including Lego, trading cards, electronics and other goods, and then go directly to the pawnbroker.

After executing a search warrant, law enforcement seized 37 Lego sets specifically identified as being from Target. After reviewing receipts and other business documents, they sorted out an inch high stack of incomplete receipts. They also found cut Spider Wrap in the lot adjacent to the building.

Prosecutors argued South Hill Rare Coin should be fined $950,000, citing the high value of items purchased by the store, the recurrence of illegal sales, and that the owners deliberately ignored the risks to the vulnerable people committing these thefts to sell to them.

The defense claimed the fines were “out of the blue”, arguing that the state did not document how much money Target lost, and although millions of dollars might have been traded in the business, it did not equal profit. Neely said his salary amounted to around $35,000 to $45,000 a year.

Presiding Judge Shelly Moss said the count regarding failure to report information was more significant in her decision than the acceptance of stolen property, as correct record keeping procedures would have provided a greater incentive to ensure property was not stolen.

“One can only speculate that if receipts had been correctly filed out if we would even be here,” she said before imposing the $100,000 fine.

In a tearful address to the courtroom Neely apologized for “errors in judgment,” saying his actions were never intentional. The Lego sets only comprised a small amount of his sales, he said, and if officers contacted him earlier he would have fully cooperated with their investigation.

“My record keeping was bad, and I got lazy, but there was never an intent to slow down law enforcement in their investigation,” he said.

Neely will continue to operate South Hill Rare Coin under limited working hours in accordance with his electronic home monitoring until his secondhand goods dealer license expires Dec. 15.

This story was originally published October 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.