GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Trading card shops in Gwinnett County are seeing more break-ins as the value of Pokémon cards keeps climbing.
The latest hit came Sunday morning at Dabbers Gaming Cafe near Norcross.
Surveillance video shows two suspects smashing through the front door around 3 a.m., walking past the register and heading straight for the Pokémon section.
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An employee at Dabbers, who asked not to be identified, said the store lost around $3,000 in sealed Pokémon product, binders and a deck box. The employee said the damage to the front door cost more than the stolen cards.
“There are bad eggs, and it’s going to happen once in a while. But I feel like it’s a little bit too frequent now,” the employee at Dabbers said.
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The break-in came less than a week after a similar crime at Wasteland Gaming near Duluth.
Police said someone fired a gun inside Wasteland Gaming early last Wednesday morning and walked out with around $10,000 in Pokémon cards.
“This is the third time we’ve been broken into in three years, but the first time that somebody opened fire,” said James Miller, one of the owners at Wasteland Gaming.
Miller said Pokémon cards have become a thief’s dream. A single card can sell for thousands of dollars to private collectors or other shops in the same day.
“The demand is almost limitless for this,” Miller of Wasteland Gaming said.
The employee at Dabbers said the store is already adding new doors and a second security system outside. Gwinnett County police continue to investigate and are using the videos to identify suspects.
“They had left their phone on one of the counters, and on their way back in, they forgot to mask up again,” the manager at Dabbers said.
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