On March 22, Yolo County Superior Court Judge Tom Dyer sentenced Nicholas Juarez Lopez to four years in prison for two convictions of grand theft and one of attempted grand theft, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office. Mr. Juarez Lopez committed about 45 thefts in the greater Sacramento area since January 2022.
The defendant told investigators he stole with the intention of reselling the items to support his drug habit, according to a March 25 press release by the district attorney’s office.
The recent arrest is partly due to the Yolo County District Attorney’s “FastPass to Protection,” which allows retailers to submit evidence and internal reports directly to the district attorney’s office, according to the press release.
“Retail theft is underreported in our county due to California’s broken laws concerning theft, drug abuse and limited law enforcement resources,” Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig said in the press release. “The FastPass program is designed to increase communication between retailers and law enforcement, guaranteeing faster prosecutions with better results. This case is a testament to the program’s success.”
Selling stolen items is one way some Californians have supported their drug habits. According to one homeless man in Orange County’s Stanton area, Legos are the easiest item to resell on marketplaces like OfferUp.
Noah Menlo, 26, of Hawthorne, told The Epoch Times in an interview last month that he would steal R2D2 Legos from Target stores in Southern California, and his drug dealer would give him around a third of the retail price in drugs. In his case, he would receive a fake pill made to mimic opioids such as prescription oxycodone.
“I was doing Oxy M30’s and I was taking the bus to his house every day. … On my way there I would usually stop at a [store] and fill up my backpack. … Obviously I didn’t have any way of making money, ya know,” he said.
In California, under Proposition 47, possession of drugs is cited as a misdemeanor, as is theft below $950 per occurrence, with more than 75 percent of those charged never showing up to court, according to the California District Attorneys Association.
Mr. Menlo said he would calculate the items he stole, plus the cost of tax, to remain under the threshold set forth under Prop. 47 to avoid a felony charge and jail time.
But in the last year, he was charged three times with grand theft, which he blamed on police miscalculating the cost of Legos he was caught stealing. He said his most recent charge was from what police said was $1,600 in stolen Legos, but he had only counted around $800 worth.
“They scanned them twice, they had to. No way it would have been double what I counted,” he said.
