KIRO 7’s Jake Chapman opens his report with a blunt reality: collectible stores are getting hit, and the thieves aren’t walking out with candy bars or cheap trinkets anymore – they’re grabbing cardboard that can be worth more than a used car.
In Everett, Chapman says the break-in at Mugu Games wasn’t a slow, careful burglary. It was fast, loud, and violent, the kind of smash-and-grab that leaves a store owner staring at shattered glass and empty display spaces while trying to calculate what just vanished.
Gulf Coast News reporter Madison Adams, covering a separate case in Florida, describes the same theme from a different angle: Pokémon cards have become so liquid – so easy to move and so hard to trace – that a group can allegedly steal thousands of dollars’ worth and try to flip it almost immediately.
And in a podcast conversation that helps explain why criminals are suddenly taking the hobby so seriously, Iced Coffee Hour hosts Graham Stephan and Jack Selby talk with collector Jeremy Padawer, who describes Pokémon’s “GOAT card” world as an ecosystem where a single rare card can command millions, and where the biggest items in the broader trading-card universe can reach $50 million.
Put those three stories together and the pattern is pretty clear: once a niche hobby starts producing seven-figure assets that fit in a pocket, crime follows like a shadow.
Everett’s Axe Smash Shows This Isn’t “Kid Stuff” Anymore
Jake Chapman reports that surveillance video from Mugu Games shows a person breaking into the Everett store and making off with valuable Pokémon cards and other collectibles, and the footage is the kind that sticks with you because it looks more like a raid than a “shoplifting incident.”
Chapman says the suspect smashed a window to get inside, and store owner Michael Doran told him it looked like the thief even went back outside to grab an axe before returning to break in.
That detail matters, because it suggests intent. This wasn’t someone wandering by on impulse. A person doesn’t casually retrieve an axe and then commit to the noise and risk unless they think the payoff is worth it.
Doran told Chapman the total loss was over $40,000 in Pokémon cards, and Chapman highlights that one of the stolen cards alone was valued at more than $4,000.
That’s also where Doran’s suspicion comes in. In Chapman’s reporting, Doran says it felt targeted – he believed the thief was after a particular card, especially because other high-value items were left behind.
That’s the part that should make store owners everywhere uneasy. Random thieves tend to grab whatever is closest and easiest. Targeted thieves, on the other hand, often know exactly what they want, where it is, and how quickly they can resell it.
Chapman also lets Doran’s frustration breathe, and it’s not just about one bad night. Doran told Chapman the store has been broken into four times, robbed at gunpoint once, and hit with multiple snatch-and-grabs involving thousands of dollars in product.
It’s hard to read that list and not feel the exhaustion in it. Even when insurance helps, the constant disruption can grind down a small business until the owner starts asking whether the fight is worth it.
And Chapman says Doran is already thinking like that. Doran told him he has years left on his lease, but he’s considering moving once it’s up because the area feels less and less “business-friendly.”
Doran also told Chapman something that shows up again in the Florida case: he’s angry about what he sees as a lack of accountability, and he believes that’s part of why the thefts keep happening.
Florida’s “Quick Flip” Attempt Shows How Fast The Market Moves
In Fort Myers, Madison Adams reports on a case that reads like a failed cash-out attempt, the kind of thing that only works when the next buyer doesn’t ask too many questions.
Adams says Lee County deputies arrested three men – Daeshaun Boyd, Jimmy Sattan, and Jermaine Warren – after investigators say they stole more than $10,000 worth of Pokémon cards and then tried to sell them at Dynamo Collectibles.
Adams describes the moment deputies walked into the store as the trio was allegedly trying to sell the cards, and she frames it as a close call for the shop: without a heads-up, the store could have unknowingly become the exit door where stolen goods turn into clean money.
The key detail in Adams’ report is how the store got alerted. She says an employee was warned by Gorka’s Poke Barn that the same three men were suspected of stealing the cards in Collier County less than an hour earlier, allegedly using a fraudulent credit card.
That short timeline – less than an hour – tells you how these crimes operate now. There’s no long waiting period, no hiding the goods for weeks in a garage. If the product is easy to move, thieves try to move it immediately.
Adams speaks with Mark Nestico, the co-owner of Dynamo Collectibles, who lays out why cards are such attractive targets: he says they’re “almost untraceable,” because if you pull a card from a booster pack, there’s no serial number on it.
Nestico also tells Adams that if the trio hadn’t come into his store and if he hadn’t had advance knowledge the cards were stolen, they “almost 100% would have gotten away with it.”
And Adams adds another important detail: Nestico says he stalled the suspects – joking with them, keeping them busy, even letting them open free packs – while an employee called 911.
That’s quick thinking, but it’s also not a strategy every store owner can safely pull off. One wrong move, one suspect gets spooked, and a situation like that can turn dangerous fast.
Adams’ report also mentions another uncomfortable truth: she observed more Pokémon cards inside the suspects’ car in the parking lot, suggesting this wasn’t just one small batch, but possibly part of a larger run.
Why Pokémon Cards Became Big-Money Targets
If you’re wondering how we got here – how a children’s card game turned into a magnet for serious thieves – the Iced Coffee Hour conversation fills in the “why” in a way that the crime reports can’t.
On the podcast, Graham Stephan and Jack Selby talk with collector Jeremy Padawer, who describes owning an Ishihara Pokémon card issued for Tsunekazu Ishihara’s 60th birthday, graded PSA 10, with only a small number in existence and the only perfect one in that grade, in his telling.
Padawer says he paid around $100,000 for it, and he believes it’s now a seven-figure item. He describes getting unsolicited offers in the $400,000 to $500,000 range over time, and he explains that offers like that – outside of auction hype – are often the clearest signal of what something is truly worth.
Then Padawer and the hosts get into the celebrity-level deals that helped push Pokémon into mainstream “high-value collectible” culture. Padawer describes Logan Paul’s interest in the PSA 10 Illustrator card, and says Paul ultimately put together over $5 million to buy one of these ultra-rare pieces, in a deal Padawer insists was “100% real.”
Padawer also compares Pokémon’s top-end to other categories, noting that the biggest “GOAT cards” in other parts of the collecting world can be $50 million, like the T206 Honus Wagner and a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle rookie in PSA 10 condition.
That comparison matters because it frames Pokémon as still climbing. If collectors believe there’s “upside,” they keep paying more, which keeps pushing prices higher, which attracts more attention – including criminal attention.
And from a thief’s perspective, the math is ugly but simple: if one small item can be worth thousands or even millions, a targeted break-in becomes tempting, especially when the product is easy to carry and hard to track.
The “Untraceable” Problem Is Fueling The Crime Wave
Nestico’s point to Madison Adams about traceability is the bridge between these worlds – between high-end collecting and street-level theft.
Most collectible cards don’t have serial numbers. Individual cards can be graded and authenticated, sure, but a stolen card doesn’t come with a built-in alarm system, and a stolen booster box can be opened, split up, and scattered through resale channels quickly.
Jake Chapman’s reporting in Everett shows the other side of this: the thief didn’t even need to take everything. If the suspect knew which card or product would sell fastest, they could focus on that and be gone in seconds.
That’s probably why this trend feels like it’s accelerating. When thieves find a product that is small, valuable, and difficult to identify later, it becomes a repeat target, and the criminals who specialize in it get better with every attempt.
It also places store owners in a brutal position. They’re expected to display valuable inventory in a way that attracts customers, but the more visible those items are, the more they advertise themselves to the wrong kind of visitor.
And when a store like Mugu Games gets hit repeatedly, as Michael Doran told Chapman, it stops feeling like bad luck and starts feeling like a business model problem the owner didn’t choose – where a store is forced to spend more on security, repairs, and stress management than on the hobby community it was built to serve.
What Stores And Collectors Can Learn From These Cases
The first lesson, honestly, is that “it’s just Pokémon” is an outdated way to think about it. Jake Chapman’s Everett story and Madison Adams’ Florida arrest report both show that criminals now treat these cards like inventory they can liquidate quickly.
The second lesson comes from how Nestico responded in Adams’ story: communication between stores matters. One warning call – one heads-up from another shop – appears to have made the difference between stolen goods getting flipped and suspects getting arrested.
The third lesson comes from Jeremy Padawer’s comments on Iced Coffee Hour, even though he’s talking about catastrophic loss in a different context. Padawer strongly emphasizes insurance, saying people need to insure and “take care of their stuff,” and he describes insuring hundreds or even a thousand items individually.
That mindset – treating collectibles like assets – can feel weird to hobbyists, but the crime reports make it clear that criminals already treat them that way.
And there’s also a cultural lesson here that nobody likes admitting out loud: the more a hobby becomes an investment vehicle, the more it attracts the problems that come with money – fraud, theft, and violence.
Pokémon cards are not the first collectible to go through this transformation, and they won’t be the last. But Chapman’s images of an axe smash in Everett, Adams’ reporting of a quick resale attempt in Florida, and Padawer’s description of seven-figure cards on a major podcast all point to the same conclusion: this market has entered a new era, and security is now part of the cost of doing business.
Gary’s love for adventure and preparedness stems from his background as a former Army medic. Having served in remote locations around the world, he knows the importance of being ready for any situation, whether in the wilderness or urban environments. Gary’s practical medical expertise blends with his passion for outdoor survival, making him an expert in both emergency medical care and rugged, off-the-grid living. He writes to equip readers with the skills needed to stay safe and resilient in any scenario.
