A Japanese man has been arrested in Tokyo for the theft of almost 1500 Pokémon cards, valued at a total of ¥1 million (around €6500). The theft happened in a store in the Akihabara district of Tokyo. There is definitely gold in them cards.
Via Japan Times, the thief, Masaki Omori, allegedly broke into an Akihabara store in the early morning of April 12. Omori has confessed to the charges of breaking and entering and stealing.
The thief reported that the theft had been a commission that he got from a still unknown third party on Twitter. In Japan this form of crime is usually referred to as a "yami baito", a term which can be translated to dubious part-time jobs.
Omori reportedly followed the instructions given to him, flying in from the Okinawa prefecture into Tokyo, renting a car and receiving equipment to be used in the heist from the third party. Apparently, the stolen cards were also handed over to this same person.
Omori was allegedly offered around a million yen to commit the heist, but he admitted to not having received the promised sum. The thief admitted to needing money because of having suffered serious gambling losses. Police are still trying to track down the other parties involved in the robbery through Omori's smartphone.
This is not an isolated incident, as similar robberies have occurred in recent months. In April, we reported on a massive TCG robbery in the Kumamoto Prefecture. Among the many stolen items, one of the Pokémon cards was worth around ¥600,000. And, of course, there's also the rather infamous Logan Paul incident.
One thing is for sure, Pokémania is not dying down any time soon, but the cards seem to have become a clear target for thieves in order to make easy money. It might definitely be time to lock those precious cards you bought in high school in the safe, right next to the family jewellery.