Pokémon cards have gone from being a simple game to being coveted collectibles. So much so that two thieves robbed a store in Tokyo’s Ikebukoro district and stole more than 100 trading cards worth a total of 1.5 million yen, or $10,600.
According to local media FNN, the incident occurred at 4:30 in the morning, when two robbers in balaclavas climbed onto a small balcony on the second floor and managed to enter the shop through an unsecured door. With a hammer they broke the glass of the display case and, in less than a minute, they extracted all the exposed Pokémon cards.
Fortunately, these were not the most valuable letters, which are kept in a safer place. However, the total damage caused by the assault could be as high as $15,000.
The shop manager mentions that his shop has a wide range of rare cards from the Pokémon series, including some that are 20 years old. The normal retail price of a Pokémon card is a few dollars, although prices have recently soared to more than $7,000 per unit.
Last year a similar event occurred in the United States, when thieves broke through the wall of a shop and managed to steal $250,000 worth of letters,
