Pokemon card thieves’ $40k heist thwarted by game store staff who wouldn’t stop talking

Pokemon card thieves were arrested after game store staff managed to stall them in the shop long enough for police to arrive.

Over the years, we’ve seen criminals go all the way to rob valuable Pokemon cards from trading card shops. While many of these incidents were quick to spread via news and word of mouth, not all of the thieves ended up getting caught by the police.

That’s not the case with Kris Fekete’s Enter The Battlefield gaming shop though – and it’s all thanks to how the owner and staff of another shop handled the situation.

As reported by CTV News, on September 18, 2024, around 300 cards were stolen from the Enter The Battlefield shop. The security footage captured one individual who had managed to break into the shop by smashing and kicking the front door.

He then went behind the cash before putting trading cards worth around $150,000 inside his backpack. “We came in and saw that the showcases for the ‘Magic: The Gathering’ and ‘Pokémon’ singles were ravaged, and our cards were taken,” Fekete said.

Now, in a surprising turn of events, the owner of the Newmarket-based shop received a message informing him that they’d been arrested – just a few weeks after that.

It all started on October 1, 2024, when two men came to the OMG Games store in Barrie and offered to trade in cards in a large amount. One keen-eyed employee quickly noticed these cards matched the ones that were missing, as explained by shop owner Rick Bates.

Without the suspects knowing, the store had carefully informed Fekete and York Regional Police about the situation. As the police made their way to the location, Fekete told Bates to stall them, which he did successfully with a staff member.

While Bates was talking about concerns about counterfeits, his colleague was “doing small talk, keeping them distracted.” Eventually, they stalled for 30 to 40 minutes in the shop, long enough for the Barrie police officers to arrive and arrest the two Georgina men.

Afterward, they managed to recover 25 percent of the stolen cards, valued at roughly $30,000 to $40,000. Meanwhile, the two men were charged with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.