Thieves have been targeting many businesses around town who sell trading cards such as Pokémon, Yugioh, and Magic cards.
Jonathon Schweer, a math teacher at Southeast, owns Pink Elephant Games and Cafe. His store was burglarized on Jan. 29.
“It’s been about nine break ins, and most of them have been hit twice at this point,” Schweer said. “So … this has been an increasing trend that people realized there’s opportunity.”
Schweer had a feeling he might be targeted and had been on the lookout. So, when it actually happened, he was prepared to face the situation.
“I had suspected it was gonna happen at some point,” Schweer said. “It’s only a matter of time until they come after us.”
Schweer has been running his store for around four and a half years. His store sells food such as homemade pizzas and sandwiches and also sells trading cards such as Pokémon, Yu Gi Oh, Magic and miniatures games like Warhammer.
For the small businesses being targeted, damages are often more significant than the losses that come from the merchandise stolen. Schweer was lucky enough that the damages to his store weren’t too significant.
“We got relatively lucky, because they didn’t damage a lot getting in, but it can be very expensive,” Schweer said. “They were able to prop our basically crowbar back door and get it unlocked, and they just entered the door by picking the lock, essentially, so the back door is still mostly operational.”
Since the break-in, Schweer has made changes based on the damages done to his store.
“The first thing I did is I essentially spent several hundred dollars reinforcing the back door, where it probably takes attaching it to a truck at this point to open it,” Schweer said. “So, I made it where it’s almost going to be impossible to break in through the back way now, which is our biggest weakness.”
Some good news for Schweer is that the Wichita Police Department recently made two arrests in his case. He says people can help catch thieves by keeping an eye out for possibly stolen merchandise.
“The biggest lookout I can tell people to lookout for is if you see a deal that’s way too good to be true,” Schweer said. “That could be an indicator that they’re involved in this somehow.”
