valuable pokémon cards stolen from vancouver collectibles shop
2 minute read
we apologize, but this video has failed to load.
try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
masked thieves broke into a collectibles store in vancouver’s dunbar neighbourhood early monday, making off with high-value pokémon cards.
vancouver police said the commercial break-and-enter was reported around 3 a.m. on aug. 3 at the royal card shop and collectibles at 4335 dunbar st.
two masked suspects pried open the back door of the business and used a stolen ford pickup truck to rope up and pull out a safe inside.
the stolen pickup was recovered in surrey later monday morning, abandoned and still running. it was taken to a vpd garage for forensic analysis, said const. darren wong in a statement released wednesday.
royal card shop and collectibles with its display of pokemon cards.
arlen redekop
/
png
royal card shop and collectibles in vancouver after the store’s safe was stolen with high-value pokemon cards in it.
arlen redekop
/
png
footage from the business indicates that both suspects are white men wearing all-black clothing.
owner mark li was out of town but got a notification on his phone that alarms had gone off in the store.
he contacted patrick feng, the store manager, who was out late with his girlfriend and rushed to the shop, arriving mere minutes after the thieves took off.
feng suspects the thieves took the safe thinking it contained cash, but it held a variety of high-end “singles” featuring popular pokémon characters.
feng gave an estimate of what the contents of the safe are worth, but police said that figure is being withheld for now.
“we aren’t going to release that information until after the suspects are located, as this information is evidentiary and could compromise the investigation,” wong said.
surveillance footage showing two suspects lifting a safe from royal card shop and collectibles on dunbar street in vancouver early monday, aug. 3, 2026. thousands of dollars in pokemon cards were taken.
from facebook video
the store is insured so feng and li are working on a claim, but ideally they’d like to get their property back.
feng said it could be challenging for the thieves to try to sell the cards because of their distinctiveness.
pokémon cards have been a frequent target for thefts across b.c. and north america in recent months, often by thieves who arrange a sale from a collector through facebook marketplace.
advertisement
three teenage bandits used bear spray in one such theft in vancouver in april, taking off with two cards worth $7,000 each before being nabbed by police. police said it was one of at least half a dozen since march in the city.
collectors’ shops have also been hit: captured! cards in burnaby was broken into three times early this year, including a break-in on jan. 12 where thieves smashed a window and made off with $10,000 in pokémon cards.
surveillance footage showing two suspects lifting a safe from royal card shop and collectibles on dunbar street in vancouver early monday, aug. 3, 2026. thousands of dollars in pokemon cards were taken.
from facebook video
the everything j&j collectibles shop in new westminster and house of cards in abbotsford have also been hit in recent months.
police agencies throughout canada and the u.s. have reported similar waves of sometimes violent robberies of the cards — which were invented by satoshi tajiri of japan in the 1990s and became all the rage, not just with kids and teens but with avid adult collectors.
the cards are traded and used in battles by enthusiasts, and some of the rarer ones have sold for tens of thousands of dollars at auction and in sales through specialty shops.
anyone with information, dashcam footage or security video from the area in the early morning hours of aug. 3 in the dunbar area is asked to call the vpd property crime tip line at 604-717-0610.
with files from j.j. adams
share story
