LAPD Officer Jorge Parra patrols the streets of Los Angeles by night. By day, he's building them one brick at a time.
Over the last eight years, Parra has designed and built an immaculately detailed replica of the city with some 65,000 Lego pieces.
"I got my first Lego set when I was in second grade and I've pretty much been hooked ever since," he says.
PHOTOS: LA Skyline Built With Legos
Landmarks like the US Bank Tower, Grauman's Chinese Theatre and Los Angeles City Hall are sprawled across three folding tables in his parents' living room.
There's a functioning commuter train, too, chugging along palm tree-lined streets dotted with familiar scenes from everyday life in LA: a film shoot, mariachis performing on a street corner and active moms pushing strollers down a sidewalk.
There's a Starbucks and an In-N-Out accurately located near LAX. Then there's the finale of a police chase, with LAPD squad cars positioned precisely behind the driver as real-life officers would.
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"I could set them up the way we do on the job," says Parra, who has served with the LAPD for a little more than a year.
The city is an extension of Parra's childhood. Like most children, Parra was limited to the smaller Lego sets his parents were willing to shell out dough for. As an adult earning a paycheck, he has spent thousands of dollars on hard-to-find pieces from sellers all over the world.
"As a kid I never got the big Lego sets that were more than $60. Those were out of my range," he says. "Now I can kind of splurge a little bit on them. I don't have that limit anymore. I don't worry about that now."
Parra sets up the city in his parents' home once per year and dismantles all of it but the buildings a few weeks later.
"The buildings go through a lot of changes. I build something, I don't like it. I tear it down and build it again. It takes a lot of patience," Parra says.
Patience, and a supportive girlfriend in 22-year-old Meghan Truax.
"While it was going up it was most of what he was thinking of at any given time, but I think it's cool," Truax says.
The stinging pain of stepping on Lego bricks scattered on the floor is something she can do without.
"Sometimes pieces fall and she's complained about it before. They're pretty sharp," Parra says. "I'm used to it. When I was little I used to walk over the pieces."
It's the process that keeps him motivated to keep building.
"It's something that I can focus on when I'm away from work," Parra says. "It's good therapy."
