Thief breaks giant hole in gaming store wall, steals $250,000 in Pokemon merch

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Would-be Team Rocket member strikes in Minnesota

Black Friday Pokemon card deals
(Image credit: The Pokemon Company)

An independent gaming store in Forest Lake, Minnesota is recovering from the devastating theft of $250,000 worth of Pokemon products.

Surveillance footage from Punch-Out Gaming allegedly shows a thief entering the store in the early morning hours through a large hole that had apparently been cut out from the wall of an adjacent store, which the robber had broken into just beforehand. Fox9 (thanks, IGN) spoke with Punch-Out Gaming co-owner Eric Johnson, who revealed the staggering value of the stolen product. Unsurprisingly, Pokemon merchandise is a hot commodity at Punch-Out Gaming, which apparently had hundreds of thousands of dollars worth stored away for would-be buyers.

"If it says Pokemon on it, it sells... Pokemon is literally the hottest thing right now," said Johnson.

"I realized how much money, product, and time we put into it, and I just started crying...I can't recover this product because our distributors don't have any," Johnson said. "So, even with the insurance money, that doesn't do us any good."

The robbery reportedly took place over the course of about two hours, but the alarm-activated entry was never used, leaving Johnson and law enforcement unaware until it was too late. Forest Lake Police are investigating the crime and call the person seen in the above video a "person of interest," although Johnson reckons there was more than one burglar due to the amount of stolen merchandise. If you have any information that might help investigators, give Forest Lake Police a ring at 651-439-9381.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.