Pokémon card thief worth $70,000 hid them at mom’s

A warehouse worker for one of Britain’s largest trading card sellers was found guilty last week of stealing over $70,000 Pokemon cards and then hid them at his mother’s house.

In recent years, Pokémon cards have become a popular commodity that involves retrieving specific cards exceptional prices at an auction. Even recently sold out card packs can reach large numbers and this has led to more and more stories about theft of the valuable box. That Pokemon The company has tried to fix this by printing billions more cardsbut it seems they remain a strong temptation for thieves.

Kyriacos Christou worked in the camp for Magic madhouse ltd, an online shop for CCG and tabletop games based in Enfield, North London. Over a series of months he stole more and more Pokemon cards and was getting brazen about his thefts, Magic Madhouse’s owner Michael Duke said my box

“He took cards out of boxes and put them in his pocket,” Duke explained. “We didn’t have video surveillance on the premises at the time. So when he was isolated, he would take the opportunity to grab things.” These included individual cards, booster packs, and booster boxes, the latter ranging in value from $100 to $1,000. “He was targeting the rarer stuff, lots of promotional stuff. We were in the process of re-cataloging our cards and we were halfway there Pokemon, so we haven’t quite finished cataloging the entire range. It originally targeted cards that had not yet been cataloged.”

Continue reading: The 12 most valuable Pokémon cards in history

But over time, Christou became less careful and started stealing cards that they had specific records for. “The stuff that was missing was out of print stuff,” Duke explained my box. “developments was missed, they are almost four digits per box.”

As soon as the thefts were noticed, Duke said he was able to locate specific items that were lost and began searching eBay for the missing items. “I stumbled across this eBay store,” he told us, “and looked up what the person had for sale and looked for things [missing from] our inventory, and I found discrepancy after discrepancy.” Duke continued to identify which areas of the warehouse had the most thefts and set up secret cameras. “Less than 12 hours later I caught the person stealing.”

The court case, originally reported by The day star, revealed that Christou’s eBay shop had sold a booster box for £520 ($630) as well as a collection of 22 rare holos for £450 ($545). A single Lugia in the first edition went for $1,200.

All maps were kept in Christou’s mother’s house, which was also owned by Christou’s brother a Pokemon YouTuber. According to that starit was over half a million Pokemon cards in the house. Duke said police told him, “There were maps all over the house. In the living room, in the kitchen, everywhere.” This complicated things because it was difficult for the police to know which cards were stolen and which belonged to his brother. So the police focused on Christou’s bedroom and the cards found there.

After pleading guilty, Christou, 28, was given a 16-month suspended sentence, meaning he would be spared jail time, on the condition that he pay £6,000 (US$7,270) within 28 days of the conviction. dollars) repays and does 175 hours of unpaid work and does not reoffend for the next two years. He also strove to return cards he hadn’t sold yet, including the rarest stolen item, one of 32 cards given to winners during a World Cup Pokemon Game. This apparently stopped the judge from immediately granting him a prison sentence. Duke is happy with that, says Duke. “It was a tremendous load off my shoulders,” he told us. “I was rewarded with compensation for losses. I managed to get a bunch of cards back. And while it’s nowhere near perfect, it’s probably the best I could have hoped for.”

That doesn’t mean Duke even came out. When I asked him how much he thought he’d lost, he replied, “25, maybe 30,000 pounds.” ($36,353). But it seems the emotional toll has hit the business owner worse. “I’m better now,” he said my box “For a few weeks after that, it affected me quite a bit. I couldn’t concentrate, I couldn’t sleep properly, I had bad confidence issues. Then I thought I was getting better, but I realized that I was suffering from other things as well. I’ve been using the Apple Health app a lot on my phone lately and I’m starting to see all the trends. “Ah, that’s where it started. And that’s when This started happening.’ It was honestly a real fight.”

With the court case over and the camp now with surveillance cameras and other measures to prevent something similar happening again, Michael Duke is hoping to find a deal.

Given Magic Madhouse is an officially recommended reseller of PokemonI thought it would be a good idea to also ask Duke if he thought the recent prices were crazy Pokemon Maps would go on. “I think it’s settled down now,” he explains. “Recent enthusiasm died down earlier this year. Now there is a notable discrepancy, some people sell a card for £150 others sell it for £500. It’s harder to rate cards, but I think you’ll find the same thing at many collectible markets.”