Small, portable and sometimes worth so much money that it would give even Pikachu a shock, rare Pokémon cards have increasingly become the target of theft and other crimes. Japanese news outlets Sanspo and Automaton recently reported that Pokémon cards and cash worth a combined total of 13,700,000 yen (approx. $92,000 USD, as per current exchange rates) were stolen from a trading card shop. The twist is that the third person arrested in this ongoing case is apparently the manager of a rival trading card store nearby.
The robbery happened on June 16 at around 3:30 a.m. at Card Shop Masters in central Japan’s Gifu Prefecture. Two men in their 30s were later arrested for breaking and entering. According to the Sanspo article, one of the men is suspected of threatening the owners with a knife before taking the cards and cash. On July 9, a third person, allegedly the owner of a nearby trading card store, was arrested on suspicion of being an accomplice in the robbery, although according to police, he has yet to confess or deny his involvement.
The shop that was robbed has been posting about the situation on its X account, revealing the alleged identity of the third suspect as the manager of a rival store. They have also been appealing for information and calling for other people who were involved to give themselves up immediately.
“There’s no use thinking you won’t get caught. We will definitely catch everyone.” they said in a post on July 10, which has since attracted over 1 million views. Commenters expressed sympathy with the victim, and shock that someone would rob a shop in the same line of work.
Incidentally, there was a similar Pokémon card robbery that took place in Japan last year. Back in September, two men broke into a trading card seller in Osaka, also at 3:30 a.m. They threatened an employee (who had just been livestreaming a card sale) with a knife, tied them up and then took over 100 cards (worth over 10 million yen or around $67,000) as well as 250,000 yen (around $1,700) in cash (source: Kochi Shimbun).
Rare Pokémon cards have become a target for heists in other countries too. In February, Australia’s ABC News reported on a string of Pokémon card thefts across stores in Melbourne. Just last week, a store in Massachusetts, USA, had more than $100,000 worth of cards stolen in an early morning break-in (source: The New York Times).
Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
