Thieves Make Off With $250,000 Worth Of Pokemon Cards
The products flew off the shelves over night.
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Pokemon cards have been flying off the shelves in recent months, but for one small business in Minnesota, this has been anything but good news. Thieves made off with some $250,000 worth of Pokemon products after breaking into a store in the middle of the night on February 9, 2022.
Located in the city of Forest Lake, Punch Out Gaming is described as a “mom-and-pop store” that sells video, board, and card games ranging from “old wax packs to the newest and hottest packs.” Punch Out Gaming recently invested in a variety of different Pokemon products including “booster packs, booster boxes, elite trainers, pin collections, deck boxes, led lights, stickers, pins, playmats, card sleeves, binders, plush, thousands of singles, and more.”
“If it says Pokemon on it, it sells,” co-owner Eric Johnson remarked. “Pokemon is literally the hottest thing right now.”
Pokemon products have been fetching top dollar in stores and online over the course of the past few months, fueling all sorts of speculation as demand continues to grow. This apparently drove a group of thieves to break into Punch Out Gaming.
“They broke through the walls, crawled through, and took all the sealed product out of there,” Johnson said. While there was only one thief caught on camera, there may have been a couple of accomplices. “He must have had help because there were a lot of boxes,” Johnson pointed out.
The group of thieves broke into a back room through a hole in the wall after making their way into an adjacent shop. They quickly went about stealing whatever Pokemon products they could find. While they were in the store for about two hours, no alarms were triggered because the front door was never opened.
“I just feel numb, just watching somebody come in and take everything away that you worked so hard to build up over the years,” co-owner Jason Peterson said. “This is devastating for us, it’s really going to be hard for us to weather the storm, we don’t have any answers yet, we’re still working on getting it sorted out.”
Punch Out Gaming has made an insurance claim, but the damages are far in excess of the money which the company is able to recoup. “I realized how much money, product, and time we put into it and I just started crying,” Johnson said. “I can’t recover this product because our distributors don’t have any. So, even with the insurance money, that doesn’t do us any good.”
Local residents have been coming together in support of Johnson and Peterson. Small businesses across the country have also been helping them get back on their feet. “Our Pokemon stock is growing back fast! Thank you to the community and other game store owners who have helped us get product throughout this tough time,” they noted. “We appreciate you guys greatly!” Peterson said that he remains confident even despite the loss. “It only makes our devotion stronger,” Peterson said. “We’re really going to keep going forward, reinvent, and come back.”
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