Ex-Wells Fargo banker accused of ‘fencing’ LEGOs stolen from Charlotte-area Walmarts
Update: On Nov. 12, 2025, a Cabarrus County Superior Court jury found Ryan Thomas Cahill guilty of felony receiving or possessing retail property obtained by organized retail theft, exceeding $100,000, court records show. Judge Clifton Smith sentenced Cahill to a minimum six years and a maximum eight years and two months in prison, according to court documents. Cahill appealed the verdict, records show.
A former Wells Fargo banker is accused of “fencing” hundreds of thousands of dollars of “highly lucrative” LEGO products stolen from Charlotte-area Walmart and Target stores, federal investigators say in a recently unsealed search warrant.
A “fence” is a middleman who quickly resells stolen items, investigators say in the warrant filed by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent against 45-year-old Charlotte resident Ryan Thomas Cahill.
Two other men are accused of stealing the LEGOs and delivering them to Cahill in his northwest Charlotte driveway hundreds of times in recent years, according to the warrant unsealed by a U.S. District Court judge in Asheville on Friday.
LEGOs also were stolen from the Arboretum Barnes & Noble book store in south Charlotte, court records show.
U.S. Attorney Dena King asked the judge Friday to unseal the nearly year-old warrant. That way, state prosecutors could use information in the document in a related case against Cahill in Cabarrus County Superior Court, King’s written filing shows.
No one has been charged in the case in federal court, King said in her request.
On Oct. 28, 2024, Concord Police charged Cahill with felony organized retail theft — receive/possess, according to Cabarrus County Court records. He was released on a $500,000 secured bond pending trial.
Cahill pleaded not guilty and “has rejected all plea offers,” his lawyer, John Dowling III of Charlotte told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday.
“Mr. Cahill is an upstanding member of the community who worked at a well-respected global bank for 25 years before he was charged,” Dowling said in a statement.
Dowling called Cahill “an avid LEGO enthusiast who has been falsely accused of wrongdoing in this case.”
Cahill is scheduled for trial in late May or early June, and “we look forward to clearing his name before a jury of his peers,” Dowling said.
LEGO theft ring investigation
Cahill is accused of directing the LEGO theft ring, the federal agent says in his search warrant application. The Homeland Security investigation began in October 2023 and used an undercover agent and a confidential informant, according to the document.
Cahill is accused of selling the LEGOS on eCommerce platforms in North Carolina and other states, including Marketplace, the agent said. Cahill was familiar with electronic fund transfers and other wire transfers through his job at Wells Fargo, according to the warrant.
In his driveway, the warrant says, Cahill directed the men who delivered the LEGOs to remove their anti-theft “spider wrapping” before placing the products in plastic totes.
On Nov. 30, 2023, Target corporate investigators identified two thieves in photographs stealing at least $1,000 in LEGO products from the retailer’s Charlotte Northlake store.
The same night, one of the thieves was seen stealing at least $600 in LEGOs from the Target Kannapolis store, according to the warrant.
Homeland Security agents were already conducting surveillance outside Cahill’s home and saw the thieves deliver the items the next day, Dec. 1, according to court records.
Undercover surveillance agents spotted similar deliveries throughout the month and in January 2023, according to the warrant.
Harry Potter LEGOS stolen
Barnes & Noble corporate investigators helped crack the ring by purchasing some of the stolen LEGOS on eBay, including a Harry Potter: Hogwarts Chamber of Secrets kit and a LEGO City: Space Base and Rocket Launch Pad, the Homeland Security agent said.
The eBay account sold about $225,000 in stolen LEGOs since October 2022, the agent said.
In December 2023 alone, the account sold and shipped LEGO products about 350 times to eBay buyers nationwide and in Puerto Rico.
That month, about $150,000 in LEGO products were stolen from Walmart, Target and Barnes & Noble stores, according to the warrant.
This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM.