Thieves steal $15,000 worth of Pokémon cards from California store in under 40 seconds: Police
A California card store became the latest target in a string of Pokémon trading card thefts after suspects burglarized a location and made off with the collectibles in minutes.
Masked suspects were caught on surveillance cameras leaping over display cases at The Card Lab in Brentwood on Saturday night and stealing $15,000 worth of Pokémon cards in under 40 seconds, police said.
The suspects drove off in a Nissan Altima and are still on the loose, according to police.
Ronnie Hackett, The Card Lab's owner who opened the store two months ago, told ABC affiliate KGO that the manager was on another level of the store when the theft went down.
"My first thought was 'I hope that my employee was OK,' and I was relieved to see that she was," he told the station.
The store was closed for a few days to get additional security measures in place.
The Brentwood theft took place days after a similar threat went down on the other side of the country.
Masked thieves burglarized Big Pack Hobby Shop in Rochelle Park, New Jersey, on Thursday, smashing through a glass door and stealing $40,000 to $50,000 worth of cards and merchandise, according to police.
The burglary happened in under two minutes and was caught on camera, authorities said.
"This was like a dream of mine opening the card store, we just celebrated our three-year anniversary yesterday actually, this is a passion of mine, as much as it sucks and it could happen again, I'm just going to keep going because this is what I love," Pablo Rancier, the store's owner, told WABC.
