A San Carlos man accused of swapping barcodes on expensive LEGO sets to buy them at deep discounts pleaded not guilty this week to four felony counts of second-degree commercial burglary, a prosecutor said.
Thomas Langenbach, a top executive at SAP Labs in Palo Alto, could face five years in state prison if convicted, said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Paola Estanislao.
Estanislao said Langenbach turned down an offer for a less severe sentence. If he had pleaded guilty to two of the felony counts, he would’ve received just eight months in county jail, three years of formal probation and paid restitution for the other thefts, she said.
The not-guilty plea was entered by Langenbach’s attorney in court Tuesday, Estanislao said.
Authorities say Langenbach brought his own barcode stickers to Peninsula stores, used them to cover up the real ones, and then purchased the pricey toys at large discounts. When police searched his $2 million home, they allegedly found hundreds of boxes of unopened LEGO sets.
Langenbach sold 2,100 items in just over a year on eBay and made $30,000, a Mountain View police spokeswoman previously told the Bay Area News Group. His selling handle was “tomsbrickyard.”
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 31, Estanislao said. Langenbach is out of custody.
Email Jason Green at jgreen@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/jgreendailynews.
