Florida man accused of stealing $30k in Pokemon cards tackled by MMA coaches
PokemonA Florida man police say tried to steal $30,000 worth of Pokemon cards from a shop was stopped after a couple of MMA coaches got involved.
On May 6, a 33-year-old man walked into Pro Play Games in Miami and allegedly asked to see a binder filled with rare Pokemon cards and then tried running out of the store with it, laughing in the process.
“Watching him walk away when I told him ‘drop the stuff,’ he like looked back and was laughing,” the store’s general manager, AnaMilena Machado, told NBC. “It was just like at that moment it felt like so helpless because it was like, we are just watching $30, $40 thousand dollars of our hard work just walk off.”
The binder contained 3,000 cards and was valued at over $30,000. As such, the store’s owner and bystanders proceeded to team up in an attempt to stop the alleged theft.
Police say the suspect, identified as Jasiel Manfarrol, took out a pair of pliers and made “stabbing motions” towards one of the men trying to stop him before uttering, “I’m going to stab you” in Spanish.
After getting away from the group trying to stop the would-be theft, a couple of MMA coaches from a gym nearby got involved in the situation.
Footage of the take down was posted on social media with multiple people including a shirtless martial arts coach pinning the suspect down.
“My friend jumped out of the car, cut him off and that’s when we got on top of him and used our ju jitsu to subdue him,” martial arts coach Dominic Galiana explained.
Manfarrol was soon arrested and charged with grand theft and aggravated assault.
This is hardly the first time someone has allegedly tried to steal an expensive batch of Pokemon cards and it likely won’t be the last.
Back in January, security footage showed the moment thieves broke into a store and snatched 35,000 in Pokemon cards.
More infamously, in 2022, a Pokemon card collection worth $500,000 was stolen from a 62-year-old’s waterfront home in a massive heist.