Employee steals $1.5 million in Pokémon cards and hides them at his mother’s house

Editorial: Gaming / Facebook / Twitter / Youtube / Instagram / News / Discord /Telegram

the letters of Pokemon in recent years they have seen an increase in popularity and that was reflected in the prices. Many people managed to make selling cards a very lucrative job, but there are also other people who took advantage of this boom to commit crimes and the most recent example is that of a subject who stole almost $1.5 million pesos.

Today we will talk about the case of a wholesale card thief who affected his own employer to benefit himself.

The 28-year-old man was employed by Magic Madhouse Ltd, an online store for board games and trading cards. This subject took advantage of the lack of surveillance in his work to steal $ 70,000 USD in letters of Pokemonwhich he carried out over several months, but he did it more and more carelessly, until he was finally discovered by his boss and business owner, Michael Duke.

Find out: a new LEVEL UP t-shirt is now available, run for yours.

Employee stole more than $7,000 in letters from Pokemon

According to Duke, the former employee took individual letters, in envelopes or even in boxes or Booster Boxes with ease because the establishment did not have surveillance cameras, so he took advantage of every moment alone to do so.

The most common boxes of cards range from $100 USD, but there were also others that were worth up to $1000 USD. The business was cataloging the cards, so the theft was an easy job for the thief. In total, the subject would have stolen more than $70,000 USD, which is equivalent to approximately $1.4 million pesos.

However, as we told you, there came a time when the thief did it without proper care to go unnoticed, since there was already a record of the letters that began to disappear, especially those that were out of production, such as cards from the set Evolutions.

Suspicion grew when Duke found on eBay that the coincidentally sold cards turned up shortly after they disappeared from the warehouse. It was then that he decided to place hidden cameras in the areas most prone to theft and thus quickly managed to find the person responsible for the crimes.

Related Video: News Roundup: Week 31

The thief kept the letters in his mother’s house

What is striking about this case is that all the letters that the individual stole were stored in his room at his mother’s house. Interestingly, the thief’s brother is a youtuber specializing in Pokemon.

Due to the above, when the police searched the place for evidence, they found more than 500,000 letters in different parts of the house, which made it difficult to search for the stolen letters.

In case you missed it: The Pokémon Company has just launched a virtual exhibit for fans to appreciate the art and history of the Pokémon TCG.

The perpetrator pleaded guilty and would have spent 16 months in jail had it not been for his cooperation. According to the details, the culprit will have to pay $7,270 USD within less than 1 month, do 175 hours of unpaid work and not repeat these acts for 2 years, in addition to the fact that he has already returned some of the letters that he failed to sell. ; among which 1 of the 32 cards that were given in a Pokémon World Championship stands out.

“It took a huge weight off my shoulders. I’ve gotten some compensation for the losses. I’ve managed to secure a handful of cards back. And while it’s far from perfect, it’s probably the best I could have hoped for,” Duke told Kotaku.

Unfortunately, the damage goes beyond what has been repaired. According to Duke, the loss estimate is around $36,353 USD. However, he affirms that the main affectations were emotional, among the negative effects are anxiety and distrust.

What did you think of this particular card draw story? Pokemon? Tell us in the comments.

You can find more news related to Pokémon TCG if you visit this page.

Related Video: Pokémon TCG: Sword & Shield – Battle Styles Trailer

Stay informed with us, at LEVEL UP.

Font