FOREST LAKE, Minn. (KFGO/CBS Minnesota) – Employees at a Forest Lake, Minnesota, gaming store said thieves smashed through a window and stole tens of thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon merchandise, marking the latest in a string of trading card thefts that have targeted retailers.
Employees at Punch-Out Gaming said the burglary happened overnight Saturday, with suspects taking between $30,000 and $50,000 worth of merchandise. Most of the stolen items were Pokémon cards.
Co-owner Mike Johnson said he was awakened by an alarm alerting him to the break-in as the thieves acted quickly.
“They were out of here in probably a minute and a half,” he said.
The burglary comes about a month after a similar theft in Eagan, where roughly $25,000 worth of high-value Pokémon cards were stolen from a claw machine arcade.
This isn’t the first time the store has been hit by thieves. Thieves broke into the business in 2022 by punching through a wall and stealing roughly $250,000 worth of Pokémon merchandise, Johnson said.
“Thankfully it wasn’t as bad this time,” Johnson said.
Since that theft, Johnson said the business has expanded into the neighboring space where the earlier break-in occurred and has invested in additional security measures, including cameras and sensors.
Many of the stolen Pokémon cards can be identified through registered serial numbers.
“If they try to sell them online, or if another store is checking the data when they’re doing a trade-in, we could potentially find out if they were stolen,” Johnson said.
Johnson said the suspects appeared to flee in a van missing three hubcaps.
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