{"id":823108,"date":"2026-07-25T14:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/823108\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T14:47:16","slug":"inside-the-latest-crime-craze-pokemon-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/823108\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the latest crime craze: Pokemon cards"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new criminal underworld is operating across Australia, but these brazen thieves aren\u2019t targeting jewellery or cash.<\/p>\n

Instead, they\u2019re preying on hobby shops for a \u201990s relic small enough to fit in a back pocket: Pok\u00e9mon cards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Brazen thieves are preying on hobby shops for a 90s relic small enough to fit in a back pocket: Pok\u00e9mon cards.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re just holding onto a piece of card in plastic that\u2019s worth a nice car or a house deposit,\u201d General Games worker Kathy Tardio said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

What started 30 years ago as a childhood obsession has exploded into a global craze and a lucrative market where rare cards sell for tens of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

But the surge in value has come at a devastating cost to some businesses.<\/p>\n

At Mind Games in Melbourne\u2019s Moonee Ponds, owner Lucas Hipkins captured CCTV of a crowbar-wielding intruder who, along with an accomplice, made off with $10,000 worth of cards in a single trip.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a case of if we get hit, it\u2019s a case of when,\u201d General Games chief executive Ryan Street said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there is a store that hasn\u2019t been broken into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A childhood obsession has exploded into a nationwide craze – but the surge in value has come at a devastating cost to local businesses.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

Street\u2019s business has been hit three separate times. One incident, he revealed, involved an alleged inside job where it\u2019s claimed a store manager was \u201cstealing product, stealing cards, working with customers … to basically defraud and fleece the store\u201d of tens of thousands of dollars in stock.<\/p>\n

More than 85 billion Pok\u00e9mon cards have been printed since the franchise launched, more than half of those in the past six years.<\/p>\n

And production isn\u2019t slowing down. Year-on-year, more than 1000 new types of cards hit the market, and some are fetching big bucks.<\/p>\n

In February, US influencer Logan Paul broke records after selling his ultra-rare Pikachu card for $23.6 million.<\/p>\n

But you don\u2019t need a multimillion-dollar card to turn a profit.<\/p>\n

According to criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro, stolen cards are often flipped online via platforms like Facebook Marketplace or eBay for easy cash.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Businesses are calling for a dedicated police taskforce to crack down on card-related thefts once and for all.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

\u201cCrooks like a quick turnaround, they\u2019re not long-term planners,\u201d Watson-Munro said, adding that international crime syndicates cannot be ruled out as the market grows.<\/p>\n

Businesses are calling for a dedicated police taskforce to crack down on card-related thefts once and for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor store owners, it\u2019s not just fun and games, this is their livelihood,\u201d Street said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see it as a serious crime and [police] see it as a serious crime, but they just don\u2019t have the resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

No charges have been laid in relation to any of the incidents mentioned, but police have confirmed investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new criminal underworld is operating across Australia, but these brazen thieves aren\u2019t targeting jewellery or cash. Instead,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-823108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}