Man Breaks into Card Store with a Rope, Stole Pokemon Cards

No, this was not Team Rocket.

A 28-year old Japanese man in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, has been arrested for suspicion of theft for stealing cash and trading cards worth thousands of dollars.

The man named Kensuke Nakanishi is suspected of stealing money and trading cards (Pokémon cards and Yu-Gi-Oh) by breaking into a card shop. He hung a rope (without lifeline) from the roof into the top floor of a six-story building and entered the building by breaking a store window with a tool.

Image from: FNNプライムオンライン

Nakanishi broke into a specialty card shop store in Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima around 5 AM on March 23, 2021. He has allegedly stolen cash worth of 300.000 yen ($2.731 USD) and roughly 80 trading cards, including Pokémon Card Game and Yu-Gi-Oh cards with an estimated market value of approximately 1 million yen ($9.105 USD).

According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department their investigation, Nakanishi said in a statement: "I was in the rock climbing club when I was a student. I thought that it would sell well if resold (these cards)."  This was also paying for his debt as he has reportedly admitted this, "I did it to pay off a debt."

Nakanishi was identified during an investigation by the Ikebukuro Police Station as a possible suspect after he was spotted in video footage from security cameras in the surrounding area of the store.

We discovered that this specific card store that was broken into, is BIG MAGIC Ikebukuro store. They are a popular card shop store in Japan with multiple store locations. They closed the store on the day this incident happened. ''[Store information] We will be temporarily closed due to circumstances today. We apologize for the inconvenience.''

This story also has been covered on Japanese television news (Fuji News Network) on March 29, 2021. You can watch the coverage here of this incident on the Fuji News Network Youtube Channel in the article below. In the second video at 0:28 min from the Youtube Channel of NTV News24, you can see a reconstruction in 3D how he used the rope to climb down to break into the store.

A Japanese man also got arrested in 2020 for attempted fraud by sending in faked popsicle sticks to win a limited edition Zarude V promo card.