On May 6, a 33-year-old Florida man walked into Pro Play Games in Miami with a mischievous plan: to steal over $30,000 worth of rare Pokémon cards. The suspect allegedly asked to see a binder filled with these valuable cards and then attempted to run out of the store, laughing as he did so. The binder contained a whopping 3,000 cards, making it a treasure trove for any Pokémon enthusiast but a couple of MMA Coaches came to the rescue.
However, the store’s owner and bystanders weren’t about to let this theft slide. They teamed up to stop the suspect, who brandished a pair of pliers and made threatening gestures toward those trying to apprehend him.
“Watching him walk away when I told him ‘drop the stuff,’ he like looked back and was laughing,” the store’s general manager, AnaMilena Machado, told NBC. “It was just like at that moment it felt like so helpless because it was like, we are just watching $30, $40 thousand dollars of our hard work just walk off.”
MMA Coaches Saves The Day
Undeterred, a couple of MMA coaches from a nearby gym joined the fray. Surveillance footage captured the dramatic takedown, showing a shirtless martial arts coach pinning the suspect down until police arrived.
“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,” MMA coach Dominic Galiana explained.
The suspect, identified as Jasiel Manfarrol, was arrested and charged with grand theft and aggravated assault. This incident is just one of many involving stolen Pokémon cards, as their value continues to rise. In a previous case, thieves made off with $35,000 worth of cards, and in 2022, a collection worth $500,000 was stolen from a waterfront home. Clearly, Pokémon cards are no child’s play when it comes to their worth and the lengths people will go to acquire them.
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