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MMA fighters tackle thief who stole £32,000 worth of Pokémon trading cards-Kenneth Andersen-Entertainment – Metro
A man has been arrested for stealing a valuable Pokémon card collection, but a video shows how two MMA fighters managed to stop him.
Never steal from a shop with an MMA gym next door (Twitter/Instagram)
A man has been arrested for stealing a valuable Pokémon card collection, but a video shows how two MMA fighters managed to stop him.
Pokémon may have started out as a video game, and that’s still what drives the franchise in terms of new creatures and locations, but it’s the trading card game which is the most important part of the franchise for many, especially when it comes to merchandise.
The value of the original cards has skyrocketed in recent years, with one fan recently putting a rare card up for action valued at a staggering £400,000.
So it’s not too surprising that these cards get the attention of criminals, and someone is now accused of trying to steal a collection worth $40,000 (£32,000). Luckily for the owner, two MMA fighters happened to be nearby and stopped him before he got away.
The suspect asked to see a binder full of Pokémon cards at Pro Play Game in Miami, which contained 3,000 cards, before grabbing it and leaving the store.
‘Watching him walk away when I told him ‘drop the stuff,’ he like looked back and was laughing,’ general manager at the store, AnaMilena Machado, told NBC Miami.
‘It was just like at that moment it felt like so helpless because it was like, we are just watching $30 to $40,000 of our hard work just walk off.’
Luckily, the suspect was then confronted by two coaches from a nearby martial arts centre.
‘My friend jumped out of the car, cut him off and that’s when we got on top of him and used our ju-jitsu to subdue him,’ said Dominic Galiana, one of the two good samaritans.
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Thanks to the two men, the suspect was later arrested by police and charged with grand theft and aggravated assault.
You can watch the dramatic event, when the two coaches tackled and pinned the suspect down, in the surveillance camera footage below.
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