Raiders in balaclavas break into shop and steal £30,000 of Pokemon cards

Masked raiders have been caught on camera smashing into a trading card shop and stealing dozens of Pokemon cards.

CCTV footage shows one of the three burglars smashing their way into Full Fire TCG, in Gloucester, with a crowbar.

The intruders broke a door and window at the site in the city’s docks area before stealing close to £30,000 worth of card games.

Owner Ben Powell, 34, said he was ‘in panic’ by the break-in – which left the shop in Gloucester ransacked.

He said that some of the cards, such as Pokémon and Magic The Gathering are ‘highly collectable and extremely valuable and range from a couple of pounds to thousands of pounds.’

Ben said the shop was targeted in the early hours of February 21.

When he woke up at 8am he had several notifications from the shop cameras.

He said: ‘The videos showed three burglars with balaclavas breaking in at about 5am.

‘They cleared out the contents of the cabinets and stole nearly a thousand Pokémon cards.

‘I panicked at first almost in disbelief – it was really odd.

‘I watched the Ring Doorbell notifications and had to watch it again and again – I thought I was having a nightmare.’

On his way to the shop Ben called Gloucestershire Police and when he arrived he said there was ‘mess everywhere’.

He said: ‘It’s really sad, it’s a significant amount of money and it’s going to affect the business.’

But added that the worse is the ‘worry of it happening again’.

He said that he intended to carry on trading despite the burglary, opting not to stock such expensive card games in the shop from now on.

He continued: ‘I’m now waking up at 5 o’clock and checking my phone and the cameras.

‘Moving forward it’s gonna change how we operate.

‘We are not going to sell expensive cards anymore.’

Recently a man from Surrey had £300,000 of Pokémon cards taken from his home, while a Cambridgeshire business lost £100,000 of stock.

Ben said: ‘In 2026 people know how much these cards are worth it so it makes a card shop the equivalent of a jewelry shop.

‘You become a real target.

‘There’s another shop in town they were broken into last summer, and it was a games and collectables shop.

‘They got targeted for Pokémon’s cards and they got stolen them.’

Full Fire TCG opened in December 2024 and employs one person as well as having the help of a volunteer.

He added: ‘The police haven’t got back to us since we reported it to them.

‘I just want justice and I want them caught.

‘Right now it feels like they do it because they can get away with it.

‘Somebody somewhere from a justice perspective has to deter them and before that for the police to take it seriously enough to catch them.’

A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Police said: ‘We’re investigating a burglary which was reported at a shop in Gloucester last month.

‘It was reported that three masked men had forced entry to a shop at Gloucester Docks before stealing trading cards valued at over £10,000.

‘This is believed to have taken place between midnight and 8am on Saturday 21 February.

‘Scenes of crime officers attended and officers have spoken to the victim about the next steps for the investigation.’

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