Paul was certain it was Zack, but he had no proof. So he offered a reward via his Instagram account, and it worked like a charm. Someone sent Paul surveillance video of a man who appeared to be Zack wheeling the brightly colored sofa pieces into his apartment building.

Paul forwarded the evidence to police. He also texted some of the damning surveillance images to Zack, along with a message.

“This was the single worst decision you ever made,” Paul wrote. “I’m going to make you famous.”

The threat did not appear to have the intended effect. While the police were still investigating, there was a second break-in at Merit, eight days after the first one.

The masked burglar, captured on surveillance video this time, wore all black with purple latex gloves. Among the stolen items was a 1920s-era Goyard trunk ($32,000), a Gucci snakeskin desk set ($4,800) and a cast aluminum chair by Pierre Guariche ($3,500), according to Paul.

Once again, Paul sent the evidence he had to police. By then he had learned something else that bordered on the absurd: Someone had sent him Zack’s profile on the Hinge dating app, which included a photo of Zack’s dog snuggled up against Paul’s stolen sofa.

Days later, Zack was arrested and charged with three counts of commercial burglary. According to prosecutors, on the very same day he stole from Paul’s store the first time, he also hit another furniture store, this one in Beverly Hills.

The arrest was a long time coming for Paul. And by then, he had another reason to celebrate.

After the second robbery, he received a tip that there was a large item covered by a blanket in the back seat of Zack’s car. Paul suspected that it was his $32,000 trunk.

“So I called a guy,” Paul said, “and I told him straight up, ‘I want you to break into this car.’”

Paul made a simple offer: $2,000 if you recover the trunk, $1,000 if it’s not there.

Deal.

Within an hour, Paul said, he received a call from “his guy.”

“He starts laughing,” and “he goes, ‘You owe me two grand.’”

His ‘modus operandi’

A stint behind bars will sometimes scare a young person straight. That apparently wasn’t the case for Zack Vincler.

He was released on a $60,000 bond on May 4, 2023. About four weeks later, someone broke into the Beverly Hills home of Emily Oberg, an influencer-turned-founder of fashion brand Sporty & Rich, police said. The burglar stole a rare set of Pierre Paulin Elysee floor lamps, valued at $10,000 each, along with five designer chairs and other items, police said.

Emily shared surveillance footage with the Los Angeles Police Department, and it made its way to the detective who previously investigated Zack, according to a police report.

That detective noticed that the suspect bore a strong resemblance to Zack, whose “modus operandi was to target expensive mid-century modern furniture,” the report says.

A podcasting duo who interviewed Emily after the burglary described Zack in more flattering terms: “The most tasteful burglar in Los Angeles.”

A sting investigation led to Zack’s arrest and additional felony charges — seven in all. After spending eight months in jail, he agreed to a plea deal and was sentenced to time served on one count of residential burglary and one count of identity theft.