Police recover $40K in stolen trading cards thanks to quick-thinking store staff

Police continue to investigate a large quantity of trading cards that were stolen from a gaming shop in Newmarket last month, but the good news is that almost a quarter of them were recently recovered at another gaming shop in Barrie thanks to some clever tactics by its staff.

On September 18, around 300 trading cards were stolen from Kris Fekete's Enter The Battlefield gaming shop.

"We came in and saw that the showcases for the 'Magic: The Gathering' and 'Pokémon' singles were ravaged, and our cards were taken," recalled Fekete, owner of the Newmarket-based shop.

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Security footage showed an individual smashing and kicking in the shop's front door and then heading behind the cash before loading trading cards valued at around $150,000 into a bag.

But weeks later, Fekete received better news.

"I got the message they've been arrested. It was a really good feeling," said Fekete.

On October 1, two men entered the OMG Games store in Barrie and offered to trade in a large amount of Magic cards.

"One of our employees noticed right away that it matched pretty well. Matched a lot of the cards that were missing," said Rick Bates, the owner of OMG Games.

The store carefully got the word out to Fekete and York Regional Police without the suspects knowing. Fekete eventually told Bates via text to stall them and that police were on their way.

Bates and his staff stalled the suspects for 30 to 40 minutes.

"I was talking about concerns about counterfeits," shared Bates. "[My colleague] was just doing small talk, keeping them distracted."

Finally, Barrie police officers arrived and arrested the two Georgina men, charging them with possession of property obtained by crime over $5,000.

Returning the cards brought back the nostalgia for investigators.

"'Magic: The Gathering', fantastic way to get through grade school. Pokémon I played for far too long," recalled Constable James Dickson from York Regional Police. "The fact that the store owner was able to stall these people was very beneficial for both the York Regional Police, for our victim, as well as for the Barrie Police to get there."

The recovered cards were valued at around $30,000 to $40,000, roughly 25 per cent of what was initially stolen.

"Everyone here also got to celebrate for the first time in a couple of weeks, so it was really nice," added Fekete.

Police say there's no evidence to charge the two suspects with break-and-enter in relation to that initial September incident, adding that the top priority for investigators remains recovering the rest of the stolen property.

Police are also asking other gaming store owners to be on the lookout for anything offered to them at a value less than what it should be worth.