Pokémon thieves caught on camera attempting to rob 35,000 cards

When The Pokémon Company came up with the slogan “Gotta Catch 'Em All”, they didn't mean ‘steal ‘em all’ after these sticky-fingered thieves stole 35,000 Pokémon cards.

The Pokémon Trading Card game is one of the favourite hobbies of Pokémon and card battling enthusiasts worldwide of all ages. It’s also a very lucrative business with the most valuable cards being worth hundreds of thousands or millions in the case of the social media star, Logan Paul who also faced claims of faking a card scam for content.

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Sadly due to Pokémon card collecting being so profitable, fans have become targets of greedy thieves such as this collector who was left in tears after their $200,000 collection was stolen. Unfortunately, thieves have been at it once more.

As reported by Kotaku, thieves stole 35,000 cards from the San Jose-based store in the United States, Tofu’s Trading. The thieves were caught red-handed on the CCTV security cameras at 2am on 24 January 2024. The owner of the store shared footage of the robbery in progress via an Instagram post and humorously added the Metal Gear Solid alert sound effect when a thief realised that police officers had entered the premises, scampering back and forth on their hands and knees.

Unfortunately, despite being caught on camera and police officers arriving on the premises, the criminals are still reportedly at large, which wasn't helped by the fact that the motion detectors in the store were faulty at the time. It’s been claimed that over 35,000 Pokémon cards were stolen, as well as Magic: The Gathering booster packs and the cash register.

Hopefully, the criminals will be caught soon and the shop owner retrieves the stolen items or is at least covered by insurance.