Pokémon bandits tunnel into LA shop and make off with nearly $200K in cards

Pokémon bandits tunneled into a Los Angeles collectible shop and made off with nearly $200K in cards in a brazen burglary in Anaheim.

It happened in the early morning hours of Wednesday morning at DOWE Collectibles in the 1100 block of North Harbor Boulevard, the Anaheim Police Department told KTLA.

Investigators said suspects broke into one office and, using a sledgehammer, smashed through drywall and tunneled into the collectible card shop next door.

Security camera footage from CBSLA showed the suspects breaking into the shop through the wall before the masked thieves used sledgehammers to break display cases.

The burglars made their way through the shop, smashing cases and filling up giant black bags of $180,000 worth of the cards, police said.

The owner of the shop, Duy Pham, said when his phone alerted him to the break-in he could not believe what he was seeing.

“I clicked on the footage and saw guys coming through the hole,” Pham said. “My heart was pounding. I called 911 right away and rushed over here.”

The owner said the burglars didn’t bother with electronics and focused only on the collectable cards.

“They didn’t touch our computers or cameras,” Pham said. “They were here for the cards.”

KTLA’s video showed the damage in the wall and what the shop looked like after the break in. 

No arrests have been made, and police confirmed to KTLA that detectives are following up on leads in the case.

Police did not immediately return calls from The Post. This is only the latest example of thieves breaking into collectible stores for the specialty cards. 

In January, Merch-loving thieves stole a $300,000 set of Pokémon cards and other collectibles in two robberies in Los Angeles-including a brazen caught-on-camera heist using an electric saw, The Post reported.

The Anaheim shop owner said there’s been an increase in the value of the Pokémon cards and pointed out how some are worth thousands of dollars. 

“One card can be worth up to $10,000,” Pham told KTLA. “People see the money is there.”

He added, “We kind of expected something like this sooner or later. When you’re in this business, you feel like you have a target on your back.”