Police Release Photos of Two Men Sought in $8,000 One Piece Card Theft

Police in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania have now released surveillance photos of two men they want to identify in the theft of a One Piece card worth $8,000.

The second photo went out Monday, Sept. 7, as first reported by NBC10 Philadelphia. The first had been posted back on Sept. 1, according to the department’s own public case file.

In the images, the first man is wearing a red baseball cap with a “100” emoji on it and a light-colored Corona T-shirt. The second — the one police just added — has a black baseball cap turned backwards, a black Nike T-shirt with an orange swoosh, and floral-patterned shorts. Both men wear glasses, and both have a tattoo on one forearm.

The theft happened on Friday, Aug. 28, at Key Items Collectibles inside the Berkshire Mall on State Hill Road. The card was a PSA 10 Sabo Manga Alt Art Red.

It Took Seconds, and the Case Wasn’t Locked

There was nothing sophisticated about it.

“He reached across the counter and took a card that was in an unlocked case,” Detective Sgt. Kevin Quinter of the Wyomissing Police Department told WFMZ.

He wasn’t working alone, either. Store cameras showed a second man keeping the owner busy while it happened.

“Someone distracted the store owner,” Quinter said. “That’s when the suspect reaches across the counter and takes the card out of the case.”

An $8,000 card, gone in seconds.

Why That One Card Is Worth So Much

Fewer than 2,000 of these cards are believed to exist at all. And a PSA 10 is the highest grade a card can get — basically a perfect copy.

“It’s the top end of the top end,” said Max Hirneisen, who owns another Berks County shop, Symbiote Collectibles, and knows the card well. “So when you end up with something like that, the prices tend to get higher and higher and higher.”

Quinter put it more simply: “It’s a very valuable card. Hard to get. Not many out there.”

Here’s the Problem for Whoever Took It

Selling this card may be much harder than stealing it was.

Every graded card comes with a security number from PSA. Hirneisen pointed out that the owner can use that number to flag the card as stolen — and once that happens, it’s very hard to sell through any legitimate channel.

“So you’re not going to be able to sell it for, you know, what it’s worth,” he said.

Cracking it out of the plastic case doesn’t help either, because the grade is what the money is for. Take the card out and you’re left with a loose card and no proof of anything.

“Then you’re making an $8,000 card worth 200 bucks,” Hirneisen said.

So if this card shows up somewhere — a marketplace listing, a card show, someone’s buy pile — it’s either still sealed with a flagged number on it, or it’s out of the case and worth a fraction of what it was. Either way, collectors are the people most likely to spot it.

There’s also a tool for this now. The Certified Trading Card Association launched the Global Trading Card Registry in June 2026 — a free database where stolen graded cards get logged and can be looked up by certification number. CTCA founder Nick Jarman started it in response to the run of shop thefts. If you’re buying an expensive graded card from someone you don’t know, checking that number first is worth the minute it takes.

Card Shops Are Starting to Think Like Jewelers

Hirneisen made a broader point worth repeating. As more people get into collecting, prices go up — and thieves follow the money.

Here’s how he described what that means for shops like his:

“We’re hobby shops. But now we’re almost having to treat ourselves with the security of a jewelry store.”

He’s not exaggerating. CNN reported in April 2026 that card thefts had already passed $500,000 for the year, with shops hit in Las Vegas, New York City, Vancouver, and Nottingham, England. One store in Washington lost nearly $10,000 in cards in under two minutes.

Police haven’t connected the Wyomissing theft to any of those cases. But that’s the climate every card shop is operating in right now, mirroring other high-profile incidents such as recent retail thefts targeting locked gaming hardware and an active investigation into stolen gaming equipment in Pennsylvania.

If You Recognize Either Man

Wyomissing police are asking anyone who can identify either man to call 610-375-6102. Tips can also be submitted through the department’s CrimeWatch page.

For anonymous tips, call Crime Alert Berks at 877-373-9913, or text 847411 and start your message with “ALERTBERKS.”

The case reference number is 39-26-6929.

Police are calling both men persons of interest. Neither has been charged, and no arrests have been announced.

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