Child finds meth worth $40,000 in Lego box bought from consignment store

May 8 (UPI) -- Authorities in Georgia said a child opened a Lego box purchased from a consignment store and found $40,000 worth of meth instead of plastic bricks.

The Bullock County Sheriff's Office said three women told investigators they purchased the box, which was labeled as containing Lego toys, at a consignment shop in Charleston, S.C., and brought it back to Statesboro, where they gave it to a young child.

Sheriff's Investigator Jim Riggs said the child opened the box and discovered a large bag of methamphetamine, which police estimated to be about $40,000 worth of the drug.

The sheriff's office said they believe the meth had been hidden inside the box by drug distributors and mailed to an empty or abandoned address.

Investigators said postal workers will sometimes not to deliver to addresses dubbed vacant, and the unclaimed packages will later be auctioned off. They said that was likely how the box ended up for sale at a consignment shop.

Police in Ohio seized some similarly disguised drugs in February when two Lunchables boxes spotted in a vehicle during a traffic stop turned out to be concealing more than 4 pounds of cocaine.