AUSTIN, Texas — Game store owners said several shops have been burglarized this month in Austin, with thieves stealing thousands of dollars worth of unique collectibles.
Hanging out and playing board games at Game Kastle Austin in North Austin is a weekly activity for some.
"It's just a cool, safe space," gamer Corbin Cannon said.
Creating a safe community is what owner Thomas Funk prides himself on. But he said on Saturday night, a pair of thieves were not playing fair.
"They took about $6,000 worth of retail and products," Thomas said. "It's a big hit for us. You know, we're a small business and stuff like that really hurts us and sets us back, unfortunately."
It was all caught on surveillance video. In the video, you can see two people shatter the door, run in and immediately start filling their bags with unique trading cards. The hit took less than two minutes.
"One piece in particular is really hard to find right now, and that's what's kind of driving some of these incidents," Funk said. "The value on the secondary market is pretty high on some of these cards because of the rarity of the cards right now."
Funk said usually, when they get a shipment of One Piece cards and the Disney Lorcana cards, they sell out in one or two days. He said some of the cards can be worth $500 to $1,000.
Funk said it looked like the thieves knew exactly where to go to find the most valuable items.
He believes it's a trend. He said two other game shops were broken into this weekend, with about eight in total this month alone.
"We probably lost between $5,000 and $10,000," Bat City Games and Comics owner Brendan Greenwood said.
Greenwood said his South Austin shop was burglarized overnight on July 13. He said the thieves stole expensive vintage comic books and collectible cards.
"So, they have what we call wall books, which are more vintage comics, some of the '50s and '60s and '70s comics," Greenwood said. "Then they took a lot of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Karma and Magic cards."
These burglaries have highlighted how the game community doesn't play about one another.
"The day it happened, by Sunday afternoon was probably our busiest Sunday ever," Greenwood said.
"Some of our regulars at the shop helped us with the cleanup efforts," Funk said.
"When you poke the hornet's nest, everybody comes, comes rushing to defend it," Cannon said.
Both owners said they are working on improving security measures.
Austin police said they are investigating the cases but didn't say if they are linked. If you have any information, call police at 512-472-TIPS.