An intruder burglarized a trading card store in New Bedford, Massachusetts, early Tuesday morning and swiped more than $113,000 worth of valuable Pokémon cards, The Guardian reports. Police were called in response to an alarm at 1st Edition Collectibles after the intruder allegedly broke a courtyard window to enter.
Security video showed the masked, hooded man methodically picking things from a glass showcase. Felipe Andre, co-owner of the three-owner shop, explained to NBC Boston, “He knew exactly what he was taking. We don’t have prices listed in the store whatsoever. We have recorded sales or auctions that determine value. So he had to know what he was looking for.”
The pilfered cargo contains ultra-rare cards like a BGS 8.5 Skyridge Crystal Charizard and a BGS 7.5 1st Edition Shadowless Blastoise, extremely prized by collectors and long out of circulation. Andre stated many of the cards were from the 2000 to 2006 sets and contained ‘the crown jewel of the whole Pokemon’ collection: the first edition base set Charizard.
Andre also called the shop a labor of love for the small group. “We’re just literally three guys…This is our passion. This is what we love, since we were kids,” he explained to The Guardian.
After the burglary, the shop closed temporarily to regroup. In a Facebook entry, the group wrote they would take the time to “reflect, regroup, revamp and come back even better.”
Nonetheless, Andre is hopeful. All the stolen cards had been graded professionally and serialized, so they could be tracked. The store has put up images with serial numbers of the stolen cards on their Facebook and Instagram pages so that they can be traced. “If someone sees that certificate number, they’ll know where it came from, and who it belongs to,” Andre said to NBC 10.
