JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Rally Point Cards in Mandarin is bouncing back after a break-in.
Store owner Jayme Neher told Action News Jax the burglary happened early Tuesday morning.
At his store, Neher mostly sells Pokémon cards.
The store owner says the cards have exploded in popularity.
“A really, really rare Pikachu illustrator rare. If you grade that, it could be worth anywhere between three to four hundred thousand dollars,” Neher told us.
In his store, one single card can go for more than $1,000. Online, we found cards priced in the hundreds of thousands, some even worth millions of dollars.
Similar trading card stores have been targeted across North and Central Florida. Neher doesn’t think it’s a coincidence.
The string of break-ins started on June 17 when someone targeted a store in Belleview, Florida.
Then, on July 11th, trading card shops in Gainesville and Ocala were hit back-to-back.
On Tuesday, July 15th, Jayme Neher’s store in Mandarin was hit around 6 AM.
The next morning, another card store in Pineallas Park was targeted, too.
“It seems to be somebody just hitting stores and just hitting them quickly and getting out.”
The store owners believe the culprit is the same person.
Surveillance video from the stores shows a person dressed in a gray-colored hoodie, wearing gloves and a headlamp, carrying a plastic storage container.
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Because some of the more valuable cards are authenticated with serial numbers, the store owners say the cards will be difficult to resell.
In the meantime, he says he is working on adding upgraded security to his store and just cutting his losses.
According to the incident report from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, around 250 Pokémon cards were said to have been stolen. The stolen merchandise is believed to be worth upwards of $6,000.
One store owner in Belleview says the burglar made off with $35,000 worth of merchandise - that’s the most stolen of all five stores.
Neher says he filed a police report with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, but no word yet on who the suspect(s) may be.
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