Two people were arrested in San Francisco in connection with a chaotic robbery of Pokemon cards, the San Francisco Police Department announced on Thursday.
On May 28, police said, a person agreed to meet with someone he believed was going to buy his collection of trading cards. The two met up at a park near Holyoke and Felton streets in the Portola District, where one suspect allegedly looked at the collection of cards and pretended to pay the seller.
The suspect then allegedly pepper-sprayed the seller and ran into a getaway car with two more suspects inside. Medical crews assessed the seller at the scene and determined he had non-life-threatening injuries.
Police used Flock cameras to find the suspects’ car, which they located the next day in downtown San Francisco near Van Ness Avenue and Mission Street, the department said. Officers used drones to follow the car and watched two suspects exit the car and enter a jewelry and pawn shop near O’Farrell and Polk streets.
Plainclothes officers then took the suspects into custody and booked them into the Juvenile Justice Center, where they are facing robbery and conspiracy charges. Video footage posted by the police department shows the plainclothes officers tackling the two suspects to the ground in the middle of the street.
SFPD conducted a search warrant at one of the suspects’ homes on May 30 and collected more evidence. SFPD said the South San Francisco Police Department was investigating an similar “online marketplace robbery” of a gold necklace, and investigators believed they were the same suspects.
Pokemon card thefts have been increasingly more common in California, with another theft just last week in Brentwood. The thieves took $15,000 worth of trading cards in under 40 seconds, ABC News reported.
SFPD said the robbery is an active investigation, and anyone with information is urged to call the department at 415-575-4444 or text the tipline at TIP411.