Their raids on toy shops are highly organised, but CCTV technology means more of them are being caught in the act.
It's an unlikely target for thieves, but Lego is becoming the building block for a new type of criminal.
A pre-dawn raid left toy shop owner Carey Horner $15,000 out of pocket. “It’s $15,000 of my store's product that I'm losing out, that I'm losing sales on.”
More stories from Today TonightAll caught on CCTV, shopping trolley after shopping trolley were filled to the brim with Lego that’s likely to be sold on an underground online market.
“It is easy to dispatch somehow - whether it is through eBay or markets, they knew what they were doing,” Horner said.
Lego trading is big business, and some people will go to great lengths to secure the highly tradable toy.
More stories from reporter Damien Hansen
A shop in the New South Wales north coast town of Lismore was the latest target in what's become an international trade.
Police successfully built a case to have one man jailed. He was accused of stealing $10,000 worth of Lego from Target stores in the US. A similar raid in Nevada saw $200,000 worth of Lego seized, and a man arrested.
In the UK, a truck driver was recently bound and gagged, and his load of Lego, estimated to be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, was stolen.
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