Thieves carve hole through drywall to steal high-value Pokémon cards from Anaheim shop
By Amy Powell
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ANAHEIM, California (KABC) — Police in Anaheim are searching for three suspects who broke into a collectibles shop and stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon cards after forcing their way in through a neighboring business.
The incident happened late Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning.
Surveillance cameras at Do-We Collectibles on Harbor Boulevard captured three men smashing glass display cases around 3 a.m., grabbing hundreds of trading cards in less than 10 minutes.
The store’s burglar alarm alerted owner Duy Pham at his home.
He said the suspects first broke into the business next door, then created a large hole in the drywall to reach his shop.
“They took a lot of smaller, single cards, and we have a lot of those so it does add up to a lot … big amount of merchandise was stolen here,” he said. “All of our display cases were empty.”
The owner estimates his losses at around $20,000 – and that’s not counting the damage to his shop.
This comes after a similar incident in January at a Simi Valley store, where surveillance cameras captured several thieves breaking glass cases and taking merchandise.
Police responding to an alarm there found signs of forced entry. The owner reported that about $500,000 worth of cards had been stolen.
The rising value of high-end collectibles has fueled thefts across the country.
Some cards sell for thousands – or even millions – of dollars, including a rare Pokémon card sold by social media personality Logan Paul for $16.5 million.
Incidents involving masked thieves have also been reported at a Pokémon store in New York.
Pham said his shop has several surveillance cameras and additional security measures, but he wasn’t surprised it was targeted.
“We expected that something was going to happen sooner or later,” said Pham. “In this business, we have a target on our back where … we cannot sleep well at night because sooner or later, we’re going to get a break-in. It just happened to be on Tuesday.”
Police said the suspects got away in a dark-colored sedan.
Anyone with information is urged to contact police.
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