Caught on camera: 35K Pokémon trading cards stolen from San Jose business in odd break-in
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- A downtown San Jose business owner is sharing footage of an odd break-in.
Surveillance video shows one suspect crawling on the floor as two others entered as well.
Tofu's Trading is a collectable card store. They carry Pokémon cards and collectibles. The Japanese franchise started in the 90s and its fan base continues to grow.
On Wednesday in the middle of the night, surveillance cameras captured their first break-in.
Amy Simpson, the store manager, said faulty motion detectors didn't sound the alarm.
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"We saw like three people breaking in through our side door which was kind of ridiculous because there's a fridge blocking it - so I don't think it was a targeted attack at all," Simpson said.
San Jose police did respond, but the store says the three robbery suspects were gone within minutes.
"I don't think they were in for hobby necessarily because they didn't know what to take," Simpson said.
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What they did take was the cash register and more than 35,000 Pokémon cards that range from a dollar to a few hundred dollars.
A special set of cards that only get released once a year will come out on Friday - and these suspects missed that memo.
"A lot of stuff releasing this week and we thought it was funny, we were like - oh these people don't realize that it releases on Friday not like on Wednesday at 2 a.m.," Simpson said.
They hope the surveillance video they edited and posted on Instagram not only sheds awareness but shows they can poke fun at it.
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Ann Ma is the stream and operations manager of Tofu's Trading.
"We do have a sense of humor, so it was really silly to see them crawling. We also like to take a bad time and find a little humor in it. There's not much we can do right now, so there's no point in moping over it so might as well make people laugh," Ma said.
As a precaution, managers cleared the glass cases of cards and secured them. A nightly routine they did before the break-in and will continue to do.
The total cost of what was stolen is still being calculated by insurance.
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