Pokemon card thieves have been arrested after recreation retailer workers managed to stall them within the store lengthy sufficient for police to reach.
Through the years, we’ve seen criminals go all the way in which to rob useful Pokemon playing cards from buying and selling card outlets. Whereas many of those incidents have been fast to unfold by way of information and phrase of mouth, not all the thieves ended up getting caught by the police.
That’s not the case with Kris Fekete’s Enter The Battlefield gaming store although – and it’s all because of how the proprietor and workers of one other store dealt with the state of affairs.
As reported by CTV Information, on September 18, 2024, round 300 playing cards have been stolen from the Enter The Battlefield store. The safety footage captured one particular person who had managed to interrupt into the store by smashing and kicking the entrance door.
Think about how surprising it was to the thieves when police instantly got here to the store.
He then went behind the money earlier than placing buying and selling playing cards value round $150,000 inside his backpack. “We got here in and noticed that the showcases for the ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and ‘Pokémon’ singles have been ravaged, and our playing cards have been taken,” Fekete stated.
Now, in a shocking flip of occasions, the proprietor of the Newmarket-based store obtained a message informing him that they’d been arrested – only a few weeks after that.
It began on October 1, 2024, when two males got here to the OMG Video games retailer in Barrie and supplied to commerce in playing cards in a big quantity. One keen-eyed worker shortly seen these playing cards matched those that have been lacking, as defined by store proprietor Rick Bates.
With out the suspects understanding, the shop had fastidiously knowledgeable Fekete and York Regional Police concerning the state of affairs. Because the police made their strategy to the placement, Fekete advised Bates to stall them, which he did efficiently with a workers member.
Whereas Bates was speaking about considerations about counterfeits, his colleague was “doing small discuss, preserving them distracted.” Ultimately, they stalled for 30 to 40 minutes within the store, lengthy sufficient for the Barrie law enforcement officials to reach and arrest the 2 Georgina males.
Afterward, they managed to get better 25 p.c of the stolen playing cards, valued at roughly $30,000 to $40,000. In the meantime, the 2 males have been charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.
