Durham police are on the hunt for five suspects following a brazen string of robberies that targeted collectible card stores in the Ajax area, in the latest sign of how the soaring value of trading cards has made the shops that sell them a target for thieves. Investigators say the same group struck more than once in a single morning, moving quickly from one store to the next.
According to CBC, the group first hit a store identified as Amendola. Within minutes, police say, the suspects were back on the move, fleeing the scene in a white Honda Civic and setting their sights on another shop a short distance away.
Their next target was We Got Games, a store on Kingston Road West. For the store's owner, the robbery was a first in a way he never wanted, marking the only such crime he had experienced in two decades of running the business.
The owner, identified as Lali, recalled the moment he learned what had happened. He said he initially thought it was his daughter calling from England, as it happened to be her birthday, only to find that the call was from Durham police. Investigators say the suspects loaded stolen products into one of two white Honda Civics used in the heist before getting away.
Lali said he felt violated by the break-in, noting that among the stolen goods was a collection he had picked up from a collector just days earlier. The thefts reflect the sheer value that some cards now command, a point the owner underscored by describing how a customer could, in some cases, walk in with a single prized card and walk out with the equivalent of a mortgage payment, or even a luxury car.
Despite the loss, Lali said he was thankful for the outpouring of community support in the week since the robbery, which he said had helped him begin to bounce back. He said he did not hold out much hope that the stolen products would be returned, but that he wanted to see the five suspects brought to justice, telling them they had taken not just from him but from his children, pointing to university payments, dance and volleyball fees and a family vacation.
Detectives are now appealing to the public for help. They are urging anyone who was in the area of either store that morning to check their dash camera or home surveillance footage for anything that might help identify the suspects, and to contact police with any information that could move the investigation forward.