A Metro Vancouver collectibles store is picking up the pieces after thieves reportedly smashed their way in and made off with thousands of dollars’ worth of Pokémon cards under the cover of night Monday.
Jesse Gihon, who runs Everything J&J in New Westminster with his son, says he got a call from police around 5 a.m. informing him his store, which sells Pokémon merchandise as well as video games and Lego, had been broken into.
“I got up to the shop and everything was pretty much smashed. All the glass, the door entrance was smashed,” he told CTV News Tuesday. “We have casing where we keep all our sealed product for Pokémon. That was all smashed up so they could get to it easier. It was just a massive disaster.”
He says the thieves were only after one thing: sealed boxes of English Pokémon cards kept behind glass. Gihon estimates they stole somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 worth of product, if not more.
“It’s definitely disheartening. We put a lot of hard work into the shop. We do a lot of stuff for the community. It’s just very tough to see,” he said.
The New Westminster Police Department confirmed it is investigating and condemned those responsible.
“Stealing from a small, locally owned business harms real people in our community,” an emailed statement to CTV News said.
“Our message for the people responsible for these crimes is to take accountability now and turn themselves in to police.”
Additionally, the department said it is aware of similar crimes in other jurisdictions in the region.
The entire operation was caught on surveillance camera, which Gihon posted on social media in hopes someone could help identify the culprits.
The video shows four people wearing dark sweatsuits and face coverings, who use a sledgehammer to smash the glass door and get inside. They then smash the store’s glass cases, load up the products into garbage bags, and leave in a waiting vehicle that appears to be a white Tesla.
“It seems very planned and plotted, to be honest,” Gihon said. “They were probably in and out within, like, four or five minutes, tops. They had a getaway vehicle lined up ready for them and everything.”
He says he’s heard of other robberies of Pokémon products locally, and believes the same group of people may have acted before.
“In the States, I know that there was one just the other day. Somebody was held up at gunpoint in the store with customers in broad daylight, just for Pokémon cards. So, I mean, it’s definitely becoming very out of control very quickly,” Gihon said.
He asked local Pokémon collectors to watch out for anyone trying to sell them stolen product.
“The Pokémon community itself is a very tight knit, family more or less. So there’s a lot of like-minded people that will definitely keep an eye out,” he said.
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With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Shannon Paterson
