‘Heartbreaking.’ Thief steals nearly $40,000 in cards from Mashpee game store on Thanksgiving, employee says

A freeze frame of surveillance camera footage shows the thief inside the store.Courtesy of Dark Water Games

Police in Mashpee are searching for a man who allegedly stole nearly $40,000 worth of rare trading cards from a local store on Thanksgiving night, an employee at the shop said Monday.

“It’s an awful thing to rob a store during Thanksgiving,” said Payman Ghorbani, an employee at Dark Water Games. “It was discovered in the morning on Black Friday ... literally one of the busiest days of the year.”

Ghorbani said the thief broke into the store by shooting out a side glass door with a BB gun before making off with several “Magic: The Gathering” card sets and a collection of rare Pokémon cards, among other cards, all together worth about $36,000.

An employee said the thief likely used a BB gun to shoot out a side glass door and gain entrance to the store.Courtesy of Dark Water Games

“He took basically every single box,” Ghorbani said.

A still frame from store surveillance footage shows the alleged thief dressed in goggles, a face mask, and a headlamp. Ghorbani said the thief had likely visited the store before.

“We don’t think it’s someone who regularly comes in,” he said. “They’ve probably been in the store once or twice to case it out.”

According to Ghorbani, the thief lingered in the store for about 30 minutes before leaving. Notably, he didn’t steal a box of cards that Ghorbani said were unpopular with fans.

“I think he knew a little bit about Magic,” Ghorbani said. “He didn’t take that one product that’s the same price as the other ones, just because he knew it wasn’t as popular.”

Despite the shock of finding the store littered with broken glass on Friday morning, Ghorbani said the store remained open that day and throughout the weekend and that the trading card community has been extremely supportive.

“It was heartbreaking, but thankfully everyone’s so kind,” he said. “Every single part of our community has been so supportive and helpful.”

In July, a trading card store in New Bedford was robbed of more than $100,000 worth of rare Pokémon cards by a masked thief who broke a glass door to gain entrance to the store.

A man was arrested in connection with the theft three weeks later after other stores told police about a person attempting to sell rare items that “matched the description of merchandise stolen during the burglary.”

“You don’t mess with the community,” Sean Vieira, a co-owner of the New Bedford shop, said at the time.