The craze for a toothy, fluffy, mischievous monster doll and all its viral spinoffs is escalating into a potential crime wave.
A group of burglars has broken into a Los Angeles store, taking thousands of dollars worth of Labubu dolls, which have surged in popularity this year among both children and adults, including celebrities.
“There was a lot taken, maybe like around $30,000 or more of inventory,” Joanna Avendano, co-owner of One Stop Sales, told ABC News Local 7 in California. “We worked so hard to get to this point, and for them to just come in and, like nothing, take it all away, it’s really bad.”
Avendano said the burglars bypassed other merchandise at the store, targeting the Labubus, and she alleged the break-in was planned.
She said a suspicious truck was parked outside the store on Tuesday night and she suspected the burglars were monitoring the store’s social media account, as they had just announced a restock in Labubus, which are being sold quickly.
The store in La Puente, in eastern Los Angeles county, posted a security video of the break-in showing four individuals stealing the sought-after inventory.
The Los Angeles county sheriff’s department said it responded to a burglary at the store at 1.29am local time on Wednesday and that the incident is being investigated.
“Several boxes of Labubu dolls were stolen, valued at approximately seven thousand dollars,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement, reported NBC News. It wasn’t clear how many dolls were stolen. The estimated value of the dolls can vary greatly depending on how they are sold or resold.
The sheriff’s department said the burglars used a Toyota Tacoma, which was found abandoned shortly after the burglary.
According to the store’s website, the Labubu dolls were priced as high as $500 each. High demand for Labubus have incited significant price hikes by resellers for thousands of dollars each and the rise of a black market of fake Labubus.
The Labubu dolls are exclusively made and sold by Pop Mart and have risen in popularity as celebrities including Rihanna and Lisa from the K-pop group Blackpink were photographed earlier this year with them. Many fans like to attach them to handbags or backpacks as a quirky fashion statement.
