The men, all from London, took “high value” kits of the plastic bricks from B&M stores in Nottinghamshire on August 29 and 30, 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 removed from stores in Worksop, Mansfield and Netherfield. The thieves – dressed in T-shirts, shorts and baseball caps – were caught when a police officer spotted a “vehicle full of toys” in the Newark area on August 31. Checks were carried out and a team of officers stopped the vehicle as it traveled along the A17. “All three male occupants were subsequently arrested and later charged with three counts of theft,” Nottinghamshire Police said. Image: Some of the stolen Lego sets. Photo: Nottinghamshire Police 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 September 2. 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 Anthony Coleman said “suspicion was raised by the significant amount of Lego in the vehicle”, adding that “these brazen thieves were all apprehended immediately”. He added: “They traveled to Nottinghamshire to commit these high value thefts thinking they could get away with it. “They were wrong.”
