A pair of thieves got away with £10,000 worth of Pokémon cards from a warehouse in Retford.
The two men, in true Team Rocket style, cut through the storage warehouse’s fencing before removing bricks from a wall to gain access to the collectable cards.
A van involved in the burglary was identified in CCTV footage and was suspected of travelling under cloned number plates.
The vehicle was then tracked while it was travelling to South Yorkshire and to Manchester, where it was intercepted in a storage yard.
There, two men were caught removing boxes containing the suspected stolen Pokémon cards from the van.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro's News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
Despite nabbing tonnes of pricey cards, they reportedly missed a rare one in the warehouse, worth more than £1,000.
A number of tools were also found in the van, including a sledgehammer.
Two men, aged 24 and 26, from Leeds, were arrested on suspicion of burglary.
The investigation is continuing to locate any further offenders.
Detective Sergeant Andrea Brown said: ‘In a few hours of the burglary occurring, we have not only arrested two suspects but secured the stolen goods.
‘This was excellent work by officers from Nottinghamshire and Greater Manchester Police.
‘Both forces came together to find those responsible for a high-value commercial burglary.’
Last year, a burglar used a hammer to break into a collectables shop in Massachusetts and made off with more than £80,000 of rare Pokémon cards.
The thief entered 1st Edition Collectable in New Bedford, Massachusetts, took the trading cards from a display case, stuffed them in a bag and fled, according to one of the storeowners.
‘They were in and out of our store within 30 seconds,’ William Gilmour told The New York Times.
‘They went straight to these high-value items.’
A CCTV image posted by the shop on Facebook shows a person wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a facemask kneeling in front of a glass display case full of cards.
In another post, the shop shared a list of stolen items along with some photos of them, and asked the public to be on the lookout for them
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
