Ah, power. You give a person too much and they will abuse it. Such is the case with Thomas Langenbach, a 47-year-old VP at Palo Alto-based software company SAP Labs, who has been arrested for the nerdiest crime in recent memory. His abuse of power: computer skill-based.


It is reported that Langenbach had been using his computer savvy to reproduce bar code stickers, the kind Target uses to price their items, which he placed over the original bar codes so he could purchase LEGO at a lower cost.

The multimillionaire software exec sold the LEGO sets on eBay, under the username TomsBrickYard. (For whatever it's worth, he is a top-rated seller with excellent feedback.) His seller page shows 1,475 completed sales in all, with the most recent feedback left today and the earliest dating back to May 1, 2011.


NBC Bay Area reports that Langebach's home, at 8 Sudan Lane in San Carlos, CA, was searched by the police, who found "hundreds and hundreds" of LEGO boxes inside.

Mr. Langenbach is expected to be arraigned tomorrow in Santa Clara County court; the official charge is four counts of burglary. It is not immediately known whether he used company computers and/or software, at any point, to facilitate the scam. [BetaBeat - Image via Lego.com]