Halifax game store broken into; suffers thousands in stolen goods, damages

Earlier this morning, downtown Halifax’s The Deck Box was broken into and suffered thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise and damages.

At around 8:45 a.m., owner Joshua Pyle-Carter was notified by police that the Brunswick Street store had been robbed.

One of its front doors and a glass display case holding various Pokémon trading cards was destroyed.

“It’s unfortunate,” says Pyle-Carter. “I suspect it’s someone who saw Pokémon and thought, ‘Oh, this stuff’s expensive’ and broke in to see what they could get. They seemed like they were in and out pretty quick.”

The robber(s) destroyed one glass display case holding Pokémon cards. (Chris Stoodley/HalifaxToday.ca)

The Deck Box is a game store that, on top of selling Pokémon trading cards, sells items such as retro and modern gaming consoles, video games, other trading cards and board games.

While the store sells many other high-priced items, only the Pokémon trading cards were stolen. Pyle-Carter says he thinks the alarm must've scared off the robber(s).

Pyle-Carter says he also believes it’s likely due to the current “craze” happening around the Pokémon trading cards.

Some of the cards are worth $10 to $20 while some are worth $250 or more. (Chris Stoodley/HalifaxToday.ca)

Some of the cards are only worth between $10 and $20. Others are worth much more with some being more than $250.

Pyle-Carter says he’ll have to do a full inventory count but suspects between $5,000 and $7,000 worth of trading cards were stolen.

On top of that, there’s between $5,000 and $7,000 worth of damages.

In total, Pyle-Carter says he thinks there's around $10,000 worth of stolen merchandise and damage.

Throughout the day, the store saw a steady flow of customers. (Chris Stoodley/HalifaxToday.ca)

The store has security cameras and he says the police are currently reviewing the footage.

Throughout the day, Pyle-Carter says a lot of people stopped in to check-in and just say “hello.” Some customers even stopped in — without prior plans to do so — to make a purchase and support the business.

He says that while it’s an unfortunate incident he’s happy to see the community be supportive of his business.