GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Pokémon card shops across metro Atlanta are protecting each other, and that network is what police say led to an arrest in a Gwinnett County burglary.
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Gwinnett County police charged 32-year-old Oscar Reyes Montero Stewart of Acworth in connection with a break-in at Wasteland Gaming near Duluth. Investigators say Stewart shot his way into the store on Satellite Boulevard last Wednesday morning and Pokémon.
“This is the third time we’ve been broken into in three years, but the first time that somebody opened fire,” said James Miller, co-owner of Wasteland Gaming.
What Stewart did next is what got him caught.
Days after the burglary, he walked into a gaming shop in Cobb County and tried to sell the cards. The owner recognized them.
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Miller had shared photos of graded cards stolen from his shop with other owners across the area.
“We’ve actually been working a lot with the other stores in the area,” he said. “I have a lot of friends in the industry at this point.”
The Cobb County shop employees reached for the phone instead of the cash register.
“Cobb County was called out by the store that he was trying to sell them to,” said Cpl. Ryan Winderweedle of the Gwinnett County Police Department.
GCPD detectives later searched Stewart’s home in Acworth and recovered more of the stolen cards, police say. He now faces felony burglary, criminal damage, and three weapons charges, including possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
“What we carry has gotten so valuable,” Miller said. “We should probably treat it more like a jewelry store than a comic book shop.”
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A separate Pokémon card store, Dabbers Gaming Cafe, was hit the following Monday by different suspects who got away with about $3,000 in cards, police say. That case remains under investigation, and Winderweedle said the trend shows why hobby shops may need to rethink security.
“Having just a glass case may not be enough if these things are worth thousands of dollars,” Winderweedle said.
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