{"id":912149,"date":"2026-11-10T07:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T07:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/912149\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T07:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T07:42:11","slug":"thieves-strike-northwest-side-trading-card-store-stealing-thousands-of-dollars-in-collectibles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/912149\/","title":{"rendered":"Thieves strike Northwest Side trading card store, stealing thousands of dollars in collectibles"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A Northwest Side business is working to recover after thieves broke in and stole thousands of dollars\u2019 worth of trading card merchandise, including sought-after Pok\u00e9mon collectibles.<\/p>\n

The break-in happened early Wednesday morning at BesTea Caf\u00e9 and Trading Card Exchange<\/a> on Babcock Road, just hours before the business was scheduled to open.<\/p>\n

Co-owner Hetvi Patel said the store\u2019s security system began sending alerts just before 6:30 a.m. The suspect was inside for about two minutes, according to Patel.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo minutes is more than enough to do a lot of damage,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

Patel said it appeared the suspect knew what they were looking for, going straight for Pok\u00e9mon Center Elite Trainer Boxes and other valuable collectibles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey grabbed those four ETBs and they bagged everything,\u201d Patel said. \u201cThey took several other items that were placed on our displays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The stolen merchandise is estimated to cost up to at least $8,000 in losses, according to Patel.<\/p>\n

Patel said the shop often depends on collectors who are willing to sell rare products to the business, making some of the items extremely difficult to replace.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to get rid of those. They keep it for a long while. They treasure those,\u201d Patel said. \u201cThat\u2019s what makes replacing some of these items so hard on us. You can\u2019t just go online and buy them whenever you want.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest break-in is not the first time the business has dealt with a burglary. Patel said another incident happened in August 2024. During that time, thieves allegedly stole nearly $15,000 worth of items from the previous owners.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gamerzpairadice posted this photo on social media, sharing details about a recent attempting break-in over the weekend. (-)<\/p>\n

Another local trading card store, Gamerz Pair-A-Dice<\/a>, located at 2313 NW Military Highway, is also dealing with the same issue. The store was broken into on Sunday, according to SAPD. <\/p>\n

Thieves broke the front door, attempting to get inside, but they were unable to gain access to the store.<\/p>\n

However, for Patel, she said the impact goes beyond the value of the merchandise. She said customers sometimes come in looking for specific collectibles the store no longer has, which can mean lost business. <\/p>\n

Despite the setback, Patel said she and the other owners worked to repair the damaged glass the same day of the break-in. They were ready to reopen in time for a scheduled Pok\u00e9mon prerelease event later that afternoon. Patel said more than 32 players had signed up.<\/p>\n

The business has received support from regular customers and other trading card shops, Patel said. She added that they have increased the store\u2019s security so this doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust because it\u2019s easy for you to get into any place does not mean you should do it,\u201d Patel said.<\/p>\n

\"\". (.)<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Patel said this will not stop her team from bringing something positive to the community. BesTea Cafe and Trading Card Games Exchange will be hosting an upcoming card show event on November 14-15 at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.<\/p>\n

San Antonio police have not found the person responsible for breaking into the store. If you know any information that can lead to an arrest, call Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP (210-224-7867). <\/p>\n

Read also:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 A Northwest Side business is working to recover after thieves broke in and stole thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":912150,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,12631,3071,46377,451,3,112218,6999,452,453],"class_list":["post-912149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-burglary","tag-crime","tag-crime-stoppers","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-northwest-side","tag-san-antonio","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912149\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/912150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}