Thieves Caught on Camera Stealing 35,000 Pokémon Cards, Get Mocked by Store Staff [IGN]

Thieves who stole 35,000 Pokémon cards from a San Jose collectibles store were caught on camera and mocked by staff as a result.

As reported by ABC7 News, Tofu’s Trading was broken into at 2am on January 24, 2024, by a group who were caught on camera crawling across the floor before taking the cash register and tens of thousands of cards.

While the store staff were obviously upset by the theft, they also looked to find the fun in it by sharing an edited video of the break-in that pokes fun at the culprits. “We do have a sense of humor, so it was really silly to see them crawling,” said stream and operations manager Ann Ma. “We also like to take a bad time and find a little humor in it. There’s not much we can do right now, so there’s no point in moping over it so might as well make people laugh.”

STOLEN POKEMON: A collectable trading card store in San Jose is sharing surveillance video of their break-in from Wednesday. More than 35,000 Pokémon cards were taken. @tofustrading edited the video to take this bad time & find a little humor in it. 1/2@abc7newsbayarea pic.twitter.com/OUZyTFuXXp

— LaurenABC7 (@LaurenABC7) January 26, 2024

Tofu’s Trading staff also found the thieves’ lack of Pokémon card knowledge laughable, resulting in them taking thousands of cards worth next to nothing. Though they did take plenty of cards worth a few hundred dollars each, they also missed out a new set full of expensive pieces releasing just a couple of days later.

“A lot of stuff releasing this week and we thought it was funny, we were like, ‘Oh, these people don’t realise that it releases on Friday, not like on Wednesday at 2 a.m.,’ ” store manager Amy Simpson said. “I don’t think they were in for hobby necessarily because they didn’t know what to take.”

Pokémon cards are as popular as ever, evidenced, among other things, by the number of people trying to steal them.

Tokyo police reported an unprecedented number of trading card thefts in the latter half of 2022, while an independent gaming store in Minnesota reportedly had around $250,000 worth of Pokémon merchandise stolen in February 2022. One month later, again in Tokyo, a man was arrested for allegedly launching a literal heist in order to steal the treasured cards.

Also in March, a Georgia man didn’t steal Pokémon cards directly but instead misused money from the government to buy one, using a COVID-19 relief payment to buy a rare, shiny Charizard.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.