Police in Florida have arrested a man after thieves stole Pokémon cards worth $12,000 from a local retailer. The break-in was notable for the use of a battery-powered chainsaw to gain access.
Charges have been brought against 33-year-old Clayton Warren for burglary and theft of goods valued at over $10,000. The incident occurred during a botched heist at Collection Realm, a trading card outlet situated in West Palm Beach.
Reports from KSL indicate that surveillance video captured an individual matching Warren’s description at the premises two days prior to the actual burglary. On the night of May 21, an unidentified figure entered the building after initially attempting to break a window with a rock before switching to the chainsaw.
Locating the suspect proved straightforward for investigators. Surveillance systems recorded the registration number of his vehicle, and biological evidence was discovered at the crime scene resulting from the chainsaw operation.
This case represents the latest in a series of burglaries targeting the valuable and often scarce trading cards associated with Pokémon. In January, staff and customers were detained at gunpoint during a bold raid on a card shop in Manhattan. Approximately $100,000 in inventory was taken during that event. Nintendo subsequently contacted the establishment to request a name change because it resembled an official Pokémon retailer too closely.
Earlier in December, a separate incident saw theft of stock valued at $100,000 overnight at a store in Burbank. Police in California believed this raid connected to around half a dozen other similar thefts across the southern part of the state in recent weeks. Many other instances of such crimes have happened across the country over the last year.
Most recently, authorities in Pasadena, California, took a desperate collector into custody. He had concealed himself within a closed Best Buy store in anticipation of a Pokémon card release.
