"Earlier this month, Poké Court, a card and collectible shop in the Manhattan Meatpacking District, was holding a community event where fans gathered to decorate top loaders for their cards. The event was a first of its kind for the store, which opened in November. But that's not why the people there that night will remember it. The event was crashed by a group of masked robbers who held the store up at gunpoint , smashed glass cases and shelves, and stole over $100,000 worth of collector's merchandise."
"Stories like this have unfortunately become more and more common as the scalper market has become a quick money-making scheme for people who don't even care about Pikachu, Charizard, or any of the other monsters in the series. Stores have reported everything from armed robberies and being assaulted with pepper spray to people tunneling into stores like they're in a heist movie."
"A store in Huntington Beach, California got hit right before the recent Christmas holiday. Thieves reportedly burrowed through some part of the shop's roof. "It's hard not to worry with so many other stores being hit," the owner, Jerry Hernandez, . "I feel like once we got hit and some of the other shops got hit it created a snowball effect.""
Poké Court, a card and collectible shop in Manhattan's Meatpacking District that opened in November, hosted a community event for fans to decorate top loaders. Masked robbers crashed the event, held the store at gunpoint, smashed glass cases and shelves, and stole more than $100,000 in collector's merchandise. The rise of a scalper market has produced more frequent, brazen thefts, including armed robberies, pepper-spray assaults, and thieves tunneling into shops. A Huntington Beach store was breached through its roof before Christmas, prompting owners to worry about a snowball effect. Shelves at Poké Court remained mostly empty while customers continued buying and opening packs.
Read at Kotaku
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