A brazen trio robbed a Manhattan Pokémon shop at gunpoint – making off with more than $100,000 in rare trading cards – as dozens gathered for a community event, according to cops and employees.
Footage of the shocking heist obtained by WABC shows the hooded, masked suspects – wearing anime-themed backpacks – barging into Poké Court on West 13th Street near Washington Street in the Meatpacking District where about 40 people gathered around 6:45 p.m. Wednesday.
The crew, including one suspect armed with a gun, used hammers to smash the glass covering the displays inside the shop, which just opened in early November, the footage shows.
Spewing threats as they raided the store, the trio eventually made off with more than $116,000 in Pokémon cards, $1,000 cash and a cell phone belonging to a 27-year-old woman, cops said.
The rare, stolen cards – the oldest dating back to 1999 and the newest from 2016 – depicted the characters Treecko, Charizard, Pikachu and Ho-Oh, according to images posted to the store’s Instagram story.
“Everyone here is safe,” Courtney Chin, the founder of Poké Court, said in a video posted to the store’s Instagram, with the smashed display behind her.
“All of our customers, employees and friends, they are all safe, so that is the No. 1 priority,” Chin said. “Secondly, it was a really bad day. Obviously, we have to do some clean-up.”
A woman who identified herself as Alcremie Sundae, a Pokémon lifestyle and gaming content creator, said she was hosting a “top loader decorating event” at the store when the robbers struck.
“I’m just shaken up,” she said in a tearful Instagram video. “It breaks my heart that something as wholesome as arts and crafts for Pokémon cards could have something happen like this.”
The store’s founder noted that the event had been its first ever, “now that we finally have seating in our store.”
“We want to make this a safe space for everyone in the community,” Chin said.
The store was set to re-open around Thursday afternoon after some clean-up, according to its social media.
The suspects were still at large.
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