A Heartfelt Look at the Burglary at Anaheim’s Pokémon Card Shop
Anaheim Trading Card Shop Targeted in Burglary
An Anaheim trading card shop specializing in collectibles, including Pokémon cards, has fallen victim to a recent surge in burglaries targeting similar businesses.
Surveillance footage obtained by NBC Los Angeles reveals that a group of thieves broke into a neighboring establishment earlier this week, using that point of access to reach Duy’s Collectibles on Harbor Boulevard.
Cameras inside the insurance business show the men entering but leaving the other business untouched. Instead, they utilized a sledgehammer to create a passage through the drywall directly into Duy’s Collectibles.
"When I heard the notification on my phone, my heart was pounding," said Duy Pham, the owner of Duy’s Collectibles. "As soon as I see the alarm, I click on it on the footage. The live footage shows someone coming through the hole right there."
The break-in occurred at approximately 3 a.m. on Tuesday, resulting in a significant breach: a large hole punctured in Pham’s drywall. His security cameras recorded the men swiftly navigating the store, where they seized several hundred Pokémon cards.
"They took a lot of smaller single cards," Pham noted. "Those add up a lot."
Within just two minutes, the thieves had made off with an estimated $180,000 worth of Pokémon cards.
"In this business, we have a target on our backs where we cannot sleep well at night," Pham remarked. "Sooner or later we’re going to get a break-in. I feel we work very hard just to build this small community as a hobby that we love. It’s very sad when something like that happened."
Footage from outside the store captured the suspects fleeing the scene in a dark-colored older model Honda.
Authorities in Anaheim are actively following several leads in their investigation.
