Customer robbed at gunpoint for Pokémon cards worth US$300K; string of similar robberies across LA

Visitors walk past Pokemon characters in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016.

In two separate cases just this weekend, thieves went after rare Pokémon cards, and the reported losses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

No arrests have been made in either incident.

On Sunday night at RWT Collective in West Los Angeles, one of the shop’s regulars was robbed at gunpoint of a collection of rare cards in the building’s underground parking lot.

Co-owners Danny Leserman and Christopher Chou shared images of the two suspects behind the robbery. When Los Angeles police detectives showed up, the victim positively identified them as the two men who robbed him.

“He was just leaving, just trying to go home,” Lesserman said.

The owners say they’re already working on adding more security.

“We’re going to keep increasing our security systems, too. We’re going to get more cameras into the building, things like that,” Chou said.

There was already evidence of that on Monday. Property management had a crew installing surveillance cameras in the parking area and around the building.

The owners also say they’re working with property management on having armed guards at the store and the building.

The approximate value of the rare Pokémon cards stolen from the RWT Collective customer is around US$300,000.

There’s been a string of similar robberies across Southern California. Also over the weekend, burglars broke into Simi Sportscards in Simi Valley, taking valuable Pokémon cards.

But what makes the cards so valuable?

“Most of the time, they’re used, and they’re not in good enough quality to be considered collectible. And so when they do rise to a level, that’s when the dollar amount can really get to be something pretty out there,” Leserman said.

Law enforcement officials say they’re comparing notes to see if the recent robberies are connected.