2 Northern California stores targeted in Pokémon card burglaries within hours of each other

(STOCKTON, Calif.) — Two Northern California stores were burglarized and had thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon trading cards stolen within hours of each other this week, according to police and the stores’ owners.

Investigators in Stockton are looking for clues and suspects in the Wednesday burglaries, which have become the latest incidents in a string of Pokémon card thefts across the country.

Police do not immediately know if the two burglaries are connected.

The first incident took place at Dragon’s Den Games around 1:55 a.m. local time when a hooded suspect broke a glass display case and made off with the cards in under a minute, according to police and surveillance footage.

Tom Douglas, the store’s owner, told ABC affiliate KXTV that the thief was only looking for one thing in his store.

“They’re looking for Pokémon [cards],” Douglas said. “They’re not interested in board games.”

Around 3:30 a.m. a suspect, who was also wearing a similar black hood, broke into JNA Collectibles on Fremont Street, roughly three-and-a-half miles away from Dragon’s Den Games, according to police and surveillance footage.

JNA Collectible’s owner, Joshua Lawson, told KXTV that the suspect used a crowbar to break through the front door, smash a glass display case with the Pokémon cards and flee the scene with the cards in just a minute.

“In one minute, I lost thousands of dollars,” he said.

Lawson noted Pokémon cards can range in value from about a dollar to tens of thousands of dollars for some graded cards. There have been similar thefts in California, New Jersey and other states.

“This is a problem for every single store in this area,” Lawson said.

Douglas told the affiliate that the ongoing thefts are one of the reasons he’s decided to close Dragon’s Den Games at the end of the month after nearly a decade of business.

He said the store has been burglarized four times since January.

“This is brand new this year,” Douglas said. “It kind of feels like it came out of nowhere.”