Cops Called to Best Buy at 1 AM Over a Pokémon Card Drop

45 years old. That's how old the man was who allegedly hid inside a Pasadena, California Best Buy after closing time, apparently so he could be first in line for a Pokémon card restock. Police arrested him on suspicion of burglary shortly after 1 AM on April 29, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Employees monitoring the store's live camera feed spotted 45-year-old Patrick Keys walking around the closed store and called the police. Officers arrived, got help from an employee to enter the building, and took Keys into custody. Police said there were no signs of forced entry, meaning he likely found somewhere to hide before the store locked up for the night.

Outside, a group of Pokémon fans had already been camping in front of the Best Buy for what appears to have been a 151 restock. One witness told NBC, "I was just here for some Pokémon drop, but I went to the restroom. Not even 15 minutes, and there was cops everywhere." Multiple people in line speculated that Keys was trying to get to the cards before anyone else could.

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A $16 Million Problem

This is absurd, obviously. But it's also completely predictable given where the Pokémon card market sits right now. High-value cards have sold for as much as $16 million, and scalpers routinely buy up stock to flip at inflated prices, making it harder and more expensive for actual collectors to get anything. Earlier in 2026, thieves tunneled through the wall of a California collectibles store and made off with roughly $180,000 in Pokémon cards. People aren't doing this because they love Charizard. They're doing it because the secondary market has turned cardboard into currency, and the desperation that creates is only going to produce more stories like this one.

I've covered scalper culture in live-service games for years, and the pattern is always the same: artificial scarcity plus high resale value equals people behaving like they're pulling a heist in a Guy Ritchie film. The Pokémon TCG market has all the same ingredients, just with physical product instead of digital skins. It's one thing when someone camps outside a store for 12 hours. Hiding inside a Best Buy like you're in a budget Ocean's Eleven is a different tier of commitment, and not the kind anyone should be celebrating.

Meanwhile, Goldin's 2026 Spring TCG & Manga Elite Auction is currently running through May 17, featuring items like a 1998 Japanese Promo Bronze 3rd Place Trophy Pikachu and a factory-sealed 1996 Japanese Base Set booster box. The auction is a reminder that the high end of this market isn't slowing down anytime soon. Keys, for his part, did not get any Pokémon cards. He got a burglary charge.