{"id":2434660,"date":"2026-05-27T21:51:05","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2434660"},"modified":"2026-05-27T21:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T21:51:05","slug":"ex-mga-toy-designer-charged-with-stealing-1-million-in-miniature-cars-from-chatsworth-company-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/ex-mga-toy-designer-charged-with-stealing-1-million-in-miniature-cars-from-chatsworth-company-daily-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-MGA toy designer charged with stealing $1 million in miniature cars from Chatsworth company \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A former senior product designer has been charged with stealing diecast model car collectibles valued at more than $1 million from the company\u2019s Chatsworth factory, the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced.<\/p>\n<p>Luis Tanahara, 55, of Simi Valley, is charged with one felony count each of grand theft and receiving stolen property, with allegations that the stolen property was valued in excess of $1 million, according to the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>Tanahara \u2014 who worked at <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2025\/01\/06\/federal-judge-slashes-jury-award-in-doll-trial-for-rapper-t-i-harris-and-his-wife-to-17-8-million\/\">MGA Entertainment<\/a> \u2014 allegedly stole CarTuned collectibles valued at about $500,000 from a shipping container and loaded the items into his personal vehicle about 4:30 p.m. Feb. 14, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators seized more than $1 million worth of the collectibles from Tanahara\u2019s residence March 4, according to the District Attorney\u2019s Office, which noted that the cars are highly valued by collectors and hobbyists, particularly when sold in surprise \u201cmaster packs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tanahara pleaded not guilty April 10 to the charges, was released on his own recognizance and ordered to stay away from his former workplace.<\/p>\n<p>A date is scheduled to be set Wednesday for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to allow the case against him to move forward to trial.<\/p>\n<p>If convicted as charged, he could face up to six years in state prison, according to the District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Tanahara vigorously proclaims his innocence and is looking forward to the truth coming out in the court of law, not public opinion,\u201d Jonathan D. Evans, a lawyer for Tanahara, said in an email.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement announcing the case, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said, \u201cDiecast cars are not everyday toys or merchandise with a set retail value. They are prized collectibles with a potentially infinite value to a collector, representing a tremendous loss for the victim. My office will continue to fight for our local businesses and hold retail thieves accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Bloomberg News contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside class=\"related right\"\/>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dailynews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former senior product designer has been charged with stealing diecast model car collectibles valued at more than $1 million from the company\u2019s Chatsworth factory, the Los Angeles County District Attorney\u2019s Office announced. Luis Tanahara, 55, of Simi Valley, is charged with one felony count each of grand theft and receiving stolen property, with allegations [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2434661,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21796,22691,477782,383358,22693,344421,21738,30786,21737],"class_list":["post-2434660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-business","tag-california","tag-chatsworth","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-news","tag-theft","tag-top-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Ex-MGA-toy-designer-charged-with-stealing-1-million-in-miniature.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2434660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2434662,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2434660\/revisions\/2434662"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2434661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2434660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2434660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2434660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}