Smash-and-grab thieves snatch $15K in Pokemon trading cards in under 40 seconds

A brazen group of smash-and-grab thieves in the Bay Area managed to get away with thousands of dollars worth of Pokemon trading cards in under a minute.

It happened on Saturday night at The Card Lab in Brentwood, California where a group of three broke into the specialty trading card and collectibles store and stole $15,000 worth of the cards, Brentwood Police Department told ABC7.

Wild surveillance footage captured the trio all dressed in black inside the store, hopping over the counter and dumping tons of the cards into giant plastic garbage bags.

The burglars smashed through a glass display case containing the valuable cards in the Pokemon heist that took just 39 seconds to commit before driving away, per police.

Together the trio worked quickly to gut the store of boxes and boxes of the highly-sought after trading cards.

The owner of the store, Ronnie Hackett, said it happened while the manager was on a different floor of the store.

“My first thought was ‘I hope that my employee was OK,’ and I was relieved to see that she was,” Hackett told ABC’s KGO.

“And then I also just kind of wanted to see what the damage was, what damage was done.”

“I’m relieved that she was not downstairs because that could have been way worse. But she was upstairs doing our end of the day protocol,” he added.

The store was reportedly closed for a few days to beef up security measures, but is believed to have reopened. A post on Instagram from the shop celebrated its grand opening just two months ago.

The thieves are still on the loose and are asking for the public’s help to find them.

This is only the latest example of thieves breaking into collectible stores for the specialty cards. 

Days earlier, a similar burglary happened across the country at a speciality card shop in New Jersey where a trio of thieves made off with an estimated $40,000 to $50,000 worth of Pokémon cards.

The bandits pulled off the heist in just one minute and 13 seconds at Big Pack Hobby Shop in Rochelle Park, according to surveillance footage obtained by ABC7.

The video shows three men fully dressed in black clothing rushing toward the back of the store, immediately smashing a particular display case close to the register.

Law enforcement hopes that license plate readers will help them identify the small, dark-colored SUV used as the getaway vehicle.

Police did not immediately return calls from The California Post.

Download The California Post App, follow us on social, and subscribe to our newsletters