In a daring early-morning heist, thieves made off with approximately $180,000 in Pokémon cards from a collectibles shop in Anaheim, according to Fox 11 Los Angeles.
The incident involved four suspects who targeted Do-We Collectibles on Harbor Boulevard. Around 3 a.m. on February 18, they broke into the store by first smashing a glass door of a nearby insurance office and then cutting through a shared wall to make their way inside.
Inside the store, the intruders smashed display cases and seized high-value trading cards, including a prized card worth at least $10,000.
Fox 11 highlighted that this is the second break-in the business has suffered in the past six months.
The thieves accessed Do-We Collectibles by breaching a wall connected to an adjacent establishment.
The Anaheim Police Department has yet to provide a comment to Fox News Digital regarding the incident.
Vincent Bui, who works with the shop, told the outlet that the suspects appeared to have scoped out the location beforehand.
“They had come in during the daytime and scouted the area, knew where the display cases are, knew where to go, knew what our weaknesses are,” he said.
Thieves left Do-We collectibles strewn with merchandise after stealing thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon cards. (Do-We Collectibles)
One of the suspects dropped an unlocked cellphone inside the store, which investigators were able to use as evidence.
ABC 7 reported that the suspects escaped in a dark-colored sedan and were able to grab hundreds of trading cards in less than 10 minutes.
“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,” said owner Duy Pham. “All of our display cases were empty.”
The break-in caused significant damage to Do-We Collectibles and some of its remaining valuable Pokémon cards. (Do-We Collectibles)
Pham told the outlet that his store did have surveillance cameras and other security measures.
“We expected that something was going to happen sooner or later,” he said. “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.”
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