By admin 
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Two thieves stole an estimated $100,000 worth of rare sports cards from a Tucson store early Monday, June 1.
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The theft took mere minutes and hit Showtime Cards, located near Speedway and Craycroft, hard. Security cameras captured the criminals breaking display cases, stuffing bags with sealed boxes, and leaving through a door they broke.
Store owner George Mares received an alert and immediately called the police.
“It’s crazy, it’s surreal,” Mares said. “You’re scared, you’re frustrated, you’re pissed. You want to get there immediately.”
When Mares arrived, he saw the front door shattered.
While it was boarded up by Tuesday, a display case was still damaged and had shards of glass on the trading cards left behind.
The stolen cards were some of the rarest the store had to offer, with each case worth between $5,000 and $7,000. The thieves also jumped high to reach the top shelf, stealing cases worth $6,000 to $10,000.
“These (cards) are ‘sit over time.’ The longer they are, the more their value goes up,” Mares said. “These cards are a decade old (and some of) the rarest cards, so I mean some of them are valued at $5,000 a box,” Mares said.
Mares said law enforcement told him the incident could be part of a string of thefts across Arizona. A Phoenix detective told him the burglary is similar to others seen in the Valley.
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“They had the same type of bags; they went for the same type of products, high-end, sealed cases and boxes, no singles. So it could be those guys from Phoenix,” Mares said.
Mares described the loss as “brutal” for his local business.
“We’ve been in business for 28 years, and we’ve had some minor burglaries or thefts, but we’ve never had something of this magnitude, of this kind of money. It’s a huge loss,” Mares said.
Mares has been in touch with his trading card insurance company. He is offering a $5,000 cash reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest.
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