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Is the Bling Ring<\/a> alive and well in the LA suburb of El Segundo? While that crew of teen thieves is out of the game<\/a>, they\u2019ve spawned their fair share of imitators<\/a>. Suspects arrested last month in Southern California allegedly lifted at least $6 million in luxury goods, including \u201cover 100 designer handbags (Herm\u00e8s Birkin, Louis Vuitton, Chanel), 22 high-end timepieces (Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Rolex), gold coins, jewelry, 20 firearms, and over $800,000 in cash,\u201d El Segundo police said<\/a> via statement. In addition to the bags and watches, police said they found collectable cards and firearms in one of the suspects\u2019 possession, photos of which the agency shared<\/a>.<\/p>\n The theft was tracked to a home in Temecula following a January 10 burglary in which $600,000 worth of \u201cdesigner handbags and jewelry\u201d went missing. Police are currently seeking other victims of what they say is \u201can organized residential burglary crew operating across multiple jurisdictions,\u201d including LA and San Diego counties. If you\u2019re a SoCal Vanity Fair<\/em> reader, please consider taking your $800,000 in cash to the bank instead of hiding it under the floorboards.<\/p>\n Swiss multinational food and drink-processing conglomerate Nestl\u00e9 has long been the focus of allegations<\/a> and criticism<\/a>, which makes last month\u2019s report<\/a> of a 12-tonne KitKat theft feel especially sweet. A train carrying what the company said was 413,793 units of KitKat\u2019s \u201cnew chocolate range,\u201d which included chocolate bars shaped like F1 race cars, was traveling from central Italy to Poland when the candy disappeared without a trace.<\/p>\n \u201cWhilst we appreciate the criminals\u2019 exceptional taste, the fact remains that cargo theft is an escalating issue for businesses of all sizes,\u201d a spokesperson for Nestl\u00e9 said in a statement. \u201cWith more sophisticated schemes being deployed on a regular basis, we have chosen to go public with our own experience in the hope that it raises awareness of an increasingly common criminal trend.\u201d A look at Nestl\u00e9\u2019s financials<\/a> from the past year suggests that the company will manage to stumble on.<\/p>\n Just picture it: Two semis, laden with purloined cargo, race across the Mojave Desert with police in close pursuit. No, this isn\u2019t the original Fast and the Furious<\/em> film. (Remember, the franchise started out as a Point Break<\/em> \u201chomage,\u201d with the late Paul Walker<\/a> as Johnny Utah lite!) This happened less than two weeks ago, when three Southern California men were pulled over with \u201capproximately $1,000,000 worth of Lego products\u201d spread across two allegedly stolen freight trailers, the Kern County Sheriff\u2019s Office Mojave Substation said in a news release<\/a>.<\/p>\nMarch 2026: The Italian KitKat job<\/h2>\n
April 2026: The California Lego heist<\/h2>\n