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Labubu Looters: Thieves Swipe $7000 Worth of Trendy Dolls in California

Another collectible toy craze (this time Labubu-related) has sparked criminal activity.
ByCaLea Johnson|
Labubu can be expensive, which makes people go to extreme measures to get them.
Labubu can be expensive, which makes people go to extreme measures to get them. | SOPA Images/GettyImages

Labubu dolls have been all the rage lately, gaining a devoted fanbase worldwide since their official release in 2019. Their popularity has also inspired some questionable behavior: Recently, thieves pilfered $7000 worth of the trendy toys from a shop in California.

  1. The Great Labubu Heist
  2. When Toys Become Targets

The Great Labubu Heist

Francis Dominic
When are enough Labubu dolls enough? | Eric Charbonneau/GettyImages

One Stop Sales in La Puente, about 18 miles east of Los Angeles, fell victim to a Labubu heist on Wednesday, August 6, per the Associated Press. The shop reported camera footage of the incident on Instagram, saying the crime took place at 1:30 a.m. According to the post, four robbers broke in wearing masks and hoodies and trashed the place before leaving with boxes of merchandise.

The thieves made off with about $7000 worth of Labubu products. They also used a stolen Toyota Tacoma to commit the crime. The LA County Sheriff’s Department has since recovered the car, but they haven’t shared any additional information related to the case. One Stop Sales is encouraging customers to spread the word about the robbery and to keep a lookout for the thieves. 

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When Toys Become Targets

Lego Building Bricks and Blocks
These colorful blocks have also stirred up trouble. | serts/GettyImages

This isn’t the first time people have been willing to resort to crime for toys; Beanie Baby hysteria led to numerous smuggling operations in the 1990s. When Ty Inc.’s stuffed animals skyrocketed in popularity, the demand climbed so high that resellers began illegally transporting them across borders. The U.S. Customs Service even had to limit purchases of the same Beanie Babies to three per person.

More recently there was the LEGO incident, when a store owner was allegedly caught reselling stolen block sets in his Oregon-based shop. Authorities recovered 4153 stolen sets last year, worth over $200,000 total.   

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