Catching Pokémon? £20K cards gone in one night

Somewhere between childhood nostalgia and serious investment strategy, Pokémon cards have quietly levelled up into prime robbery material. In the UK, a thief didn’t just break into a gaming store – he treated it like a late-night shopping spree, walking away with £20,000 (approx Rs25 lakh) worth of collectibles… while Pikachu probably watched in silent disbelief.

Gotta catch ‘em all… quickly

CCTV shows the hooded culprit pulling off a full stealth mission – dodging barbed wire, squeezing through a tiny rear window, and dropping onto the checkout counter like he’s done this before. He then calmly disables the alarm and heads straight for the high-value loot: rare cards, a £1,000 Japanese GX acrylic box, and pristine collectibles from the ’90s. The aftermath? Pure chaos. As the owner, Nicola Harmel put it, “It looked like someone had come in and thrown a swingball around – there were cards on the floor, all the doors had been ripped open,” Daily Mail reported. Strangely, the thief skipped a clearly priced £300 Charizard – either a bold choice or a very specific collector’s taste.

Rare cards, real problem
The couple only realised the damage after returning from walking the dog. The thief had cleared out three cabinets of high-value cards, leaving behind the low-end £10 ones like a very picky bargain hunter. “The penny just dropped… His heart just sunk, the cabinets were empty,” Nicola said, describing her husband’s reaction.
With Pokémon hitting its 30th anniversary and collectors treating cards as better-than-stock investments, thefts like this are becoming alarmingly common. One store owner admitted, “We have stopped selling cards… I think this is number nine of burglaries I’ve seen now.”

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