Pokemon cards have always been pretty pricey, but attempting to pay less for them by disguising them as other, much cheaper items is not the answer. Something an officer in the US found out recently after losing his job for doing exactly that.
As reported by The Kansas City Star (thanks, Kotaku), former police officer William Knight has been discharged by the Johnson County Sheriff's Office in Kansas for attempting to commit the crime detailed above. In May of this year, Knight entered a store while in full uniform and switched the barcodes on 12 boxes of Pokemon cards for ones he had brought from home taken from cheaper items.
Knight aroused suspicion when he took the cards to the till to pay, at which point the cashier alerted an asset protection investigator. Upon realizing he had likely been rumbled, the officer proceeded to pretend he was receiving a call. The incident was followed up and Knight was identified, at which point he admitted that he had indeed been trying to scam the store and buy roughly $400 worth of Pokemon cards for a lower price.
Knight was charged with unlawful acts involved in theft detection but ultimately evaded a criminal case being brought against him. However, the act has been brought before the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training. The body has deemed the former officer unfit to continue serving and revoked his license. Since Knight left his job a few days after the incident happened, the verdict is more confirmation that he can never return to law enforcement in Kansas rather than him losing his job as that had already happened.
Pokemon cards have never gone away, but it does feel like the hype surrounding them has been amped up in recent years. Not only due to the inflated prices some of them have been selling for, but also because of the crimes they've been involved in. A collection of cards worth half a million dollars was stolen from a mansion back in July, and a thief who stole $70,000 worth of cards was rumbled over the summer after hiding them at his mom's house.