A Manhattan Pokémon shop employee said the store has been overwhelmed with love — even from the actor behind Ash Ketchum — after it was robbed of over $100,000 in rare trading cards by a trio of masked robbers at gunpoint last week.
Peter Du was among the group of 40 people in Poké Court around 6:45 p.m. last Wednesday for a community arts-and-crafts night when the robbers busted in, used hammers to smash glass displays, and stole the valuable cards, the employee chronicled in a HuffPost essay.
Since the brazen robbery — which saw many dedicated Pokémon fans held at gunpoint in their safe “oasis” — a slew of local businesses and artists have reached out to help repair the shop’s displays and offer piles of tasty treats, Du wrote.
“In the minutes after the robbers fled, the silence was replaced by the scratching sound of brooms. Customers grabbed dustpans and began picking up the jagged remnants of the display cases,” Du said.
“By the next morning, our break room was piled so high with boba, donuts, and lobster rolls sent by thoughtful strangers and friends of the store that we had to give them away,” he said.
“Carpenters and glassmakers offered to fix the cases for free. Artists reached out to replace our stolen displays with new paintings and woodwork.”
Sarah Natochenny, who voices Ash Ketchum from the Pokémon anime, also turned up with free pizza for everyone in the store, still reeling from the violent altercation.
Du said he works at the trading card shop on top of another job because the Pokémon community showed up for him when his father — who “skipped meals” to buy him Charizard cards — died in 2016, and he needed help raising money for funeral expenses.
“Seeing men with guns threaten that oasis last Wednesday filled me with a cold kind of anger. But just like in 2016, the community’s response was louder than the shattering glass,” Du wrote.
The armed trio made off with more than $116,000 in Pokémon cards, $1,000 cash, and a cell phone belonging to a 27-year-old woman, cops said. Some of the rare, stolen cars depicted the characters Treecko, Charizard, Pikachu, and Ho-Oh, according to images posted to the store’s Instagram story.
The suspects still remain at large.
“The robbery took three minutes. The community rally has been going on for days … Even if the robbers came back and took every single card in the store, it wouldn’t stop us from sharing our passion,” Du maintained.
“We’ll keep sweeping the glass. We’ll keep coming back,”
