{"id":495647,"date":"2026-01-06T04:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495647\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T04:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T04:15:12","slug":"customer-robbed-at-gunpoint-for-rare-pokemon-cards-worth-300000-string-of-similar-robberies-reported-across-la","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/495647\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer robbed at gunpoint for rare Pok\u00e9mon cards worth $300,000; string of similar robberies reported across LA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">WEST LOS ANGELES (KABC) &#8212; In two separate cases just this weekend, thieves went after rare Pok\u00e9mon cards, and the reported losses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">No arrests have been made in either incident.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">On Sunday night at RWT Collective in West Los Angeles, one of the shop&#8217;s regulars was robbed at gunpoint of a collection of rare cards in the building&#8217;s underground parking lot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Co-owners Danny Leserman and Christopher Chou shared images of the two suspects behind the robbery. When Los Angeles police detectives showed up, the victim positively identified them as the two men who robbed him.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA hsDdd DbOXS oklLN GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"hsDdd NDJZt sJeUN IJwXl vBqtr KrDt itslR WAUrb hakZw HlUVI \" data-testid=\"prism-image\" draggable=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/18358342_sawtelle-stolen-cards-1.jpg\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;He was just leaving, just trying to go home,&#8221; Lesserman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The owners say they&#8217;re already working on adding more security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We&#8217;re going to keep increasing our security systems, too. We&#8217;re going to get more cameras into the building, things like that, Chou said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There was already evidence of that on Monday. Property management had a crew installing surveillance cameras in the parking area and around the building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The owners also say they&#8217;re working with property management on having armed guards at the store and the building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The approximate value of the rare Pok\u00e9mon cards stolen from the RWT Collective customer is around $300,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><strong class=\"vtkaO \">SEE ALSO: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/20000-worth-collectibles-stolen-ahead-grand-opening-celebration-la-verne-business\/18305811\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thief breaks into 2 collectible stores in La Verne and San Gabriel, cases a 3rd in San Dimas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>SoCal collectibles dealers are on edge after a thief struck two stores overnight, and may have been targeting a third. Tens of thousands of dollars worth of goods were stolen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">There&#8217;s been a string of similar robberies across Southern California. Also over the weekend, burglars broke into Simi Sportscards in Simi Valley, taking valuable Pok\u00e9mon cards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">But what makes the cards so valuable?<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Most of the time, they&#8217;re used, and they&#8217;re not in good enough quality to be considered collectible. And so when they do rise to a level, that&#8217;s when the dollar amount can really get to be something pretty out there,&#8221; Leserman said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Law enforcement officials say they&#8217;re comparing notes to see if the recent robberies are connected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \"><strong class=\"vtkaO \">RELATED: <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/post\/thieves-steal-more-100k-merchandise-la-sports-cards-burbank\/18255649\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thieves steal more than $100,000 in merchandise from Burbank trading cards store<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Police are investigating a burglary at a trading card and collectibles store where more than $100,000 in merchandise &#8212; mainly Pok\u00e9mon products &#8212; was stolen.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST LOS ANGELES (KABC) &#8212; In two separate cases just this weekend, thieves went after rare Pok\u00e9mon cards,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":495648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[223002,1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-495647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-223002","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115846220105298137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}