‘This is our livelihood’: Police searching for 2 men who stole $25K worth of Pokémon trading cards
By Tommie Clark
Click here for updates on this story
ELDERSBURG, Maryland (WBAL) — A game store owner said two people stole $25,000 worth of Pokémon trading cards from her.
Now, police are trying to catch the suspects who were seen laughing on surveillance video.
“It’s not funny. It’s not a joke. This is our livelihood,” said Storm Crow Games co-owner Samantha Clark.
Surveillance video shows the inside of Samantha and Tyler Clark’s store on Sept. 6, when the store was packed with people. Then, the suspects walked to the back of the store, pretending to sign up for an event. Instead, video shows them sneaking into the back office.
“They knew everything that was right to say. They said, ‘Oh, we are here to play in the event and everything that’s going on,'” Tyler Clark said.
The owners said the suspects stole three high-value binders containing at least 1,000 Pokémon trading cards worth around $25,000. The rare cards are part of a popular franchise and were only in-store for a special trade day.
“It just happened, the timing for it was terrible — awful — because we normally don’t even have anything that’s that expensive back there,” Tyler Clark said.
The men left with the stash in a backpack, all in a matter of minutes.
Game stores across the area have seen similar incidents, including two Ellicott City businesses. They reported thefts the same day as Storm Crow Games.
“I’m hopeful that they’re going to get caught, prosecuted. I’m not hopeful for getting the individual cards back. A lot of them are super rare or hard to replace,” Samantha Clark said.
The Clarks said they’ve put everything into their small business and the stolen cards hit hard.
The two recently found out insurance is covering less than half of the stolen amount.
However, since the incident, the community has been showing up. Some are donating their own collections to help the Clarks.
“I kind of got upset, and I knew I had a collection of cards just sitting around not doing anything with it. And I was like, ‘Hey, this isn’t anything compared to the amount of money they lost. But at least do something and at least let them know people are thinking of them,'” said John Fuller, a customer.
The game store has a GoFundMe to support the efforts to recoup some of the lost value.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.