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A tattooed man has been accused of stealing at least 10 boxes of Japanese Pokémon trading card products from two hobby booths at Kwai Chung Plaza, resulting in losses of more than HK$10,000, according to shop tenants who shared CCTV footage online.
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The incident allegedly took place at a subdivided “grid shop” on the second floor of Kwai Chung Plaza in Kwai Fong, where multiple vendors rent small display units.
The complainant told Sing Tao Probe, a sister publication of The Standard, that she had rented one of the booths for about half a month, mainly selling popular Japanese Pokémon card boxes. She said the display units were left without glass protective covers to allow customers to inspect the products, which may have made them easier targets for theft.
Based on CCTV footage and her account, the suspect is a man in his 30s to 40s, wearing a black T-shirt, black trousers and grey sneakers, with visible tattoos on his back. He was also seen carrying a large red plastic bag believed to have been used to store stolen items.
The footage shows the man entering the shop around 1pm on May 11, selecting Pokémon card boxes from an unprotected display unit when no staff were nearby, and placing them into his bag. He is then seen pausing and scanning the area before returning twice more to take additional boxes, leaving with at least 10 in total.
The vendor said the suspect appeared to deliberately target unprotected display units, focusing on price labels rather than card rarity, suggesting the items were likely taken for resale. She added that rare cards are difficult to track as they do not carry individual serial numbers, making recovery more difficult.
She said a report was filed electronically on the day of the incident and she later gave a statement to police. For safety reasons, she and other tenants have since ended their rentals and left the premises.
Another vendor later claimed that the same man targeted their booth the same afternoon, allegedly stealing around six more boxes of Pokémon cards, bringing total losses to more than HK$10,000.
Police confirmed receiving an electronic report on May 11 from a woman stating that gaming cards worth about HK$1,250 had been stolen from a shop in Kwai Chung. The case was classified as theft and referred to the Kwai Tsing District Crime Squad for investigation.
