Pokemon card thief arrested after $5,000 heist leaves woman injured

A man has been arrested and a woman hospitalized after a theft involving Pokemon cards at a video game store in Oshawa, Canada.

Per a statement released on July 16 by Durham Regional Police on X/Twitter, “members of Central East Division responded to a commercial robbery at the G.A.M.E.S. store, in Oshawa” on July 11 at 2 pm local time.

The DRP’s report detailed that the suspect, 41-year-old Mark Morgan of no fixed address, “entered the business and stole three Pokemon game cards worth approximately $5,000.”

A store employee subsequently “chased the suspect” when they left the store but was “struck by the suspect with a hard object.” Requiring medical care for the injury, the victim was “transported to a local area hospital” for treatment.

Follow-up information provided by the store owner on Instagram shed further light on the Pokemon cards stolen in the incident. Clarifying that it hadn’t “managed to retrieve the cards” stolen, they were specified to be copies of the Mario Pikachu Promo, Greninja EX, and Team Magma Groudon EX.

The post doesn’t specify whether any of the cards were graded – which would have increased their value exponentially if graded highly – though even in a raw state, all three are pricey collector items.

Mint copies of Greninja EX, released with Twilight Masquerade, are listed for over $200 on TCGplayer. Mint copies of Mario Pikachu, on the other hand, often fetch four-digit sums on auction sites.

This is far from the first time thieves have targeted high-value Pokemon cards. In January, thieves were caught on camera stealing tens of thousands of cards from a store. Similarly, Van Gogh Museum employees were suspended after stealing promotional Pikachu cards from an exhibition.