Ronnie Holloway, the owner of the Dunning neighborhood's Elite Sports Cards and Comics at 3406 North Harlem Avenue, says his shop took a big hit in the smash-and-grab heist, and this is not the first time thieves have targeted one of his businesses.
"They focused on certain high-end hobby product," Holloway said.
The thieves got away with around $100,000 in valuable packs of Pokémon and major league sports cards as alarm bells rang. Much of that inventory was brought in recently, and so, emotion surfaced in Holloway's voice.
"It is definitely a hard blow to me, being a small business. This is what I depend on. This is how I take care of my family," Holloway said. "It is a hard blow, and I'm sitting at my desk, and adding things up, $100,000 already. And this happening again, with insurance, that's going to be another nightmare. It is just not that easy to just recover."
Holloway lives 10 minutes away from his store and rushed there when his alarm company called him. It was 2:30 a.m., and he got there ahead of police.
"This is my passion, and this is what happens to businesses that are trying to have something to provide for their families," Holloway said.
Holloway opened the store three-and-a-half years ago after enjoying success with the city's oldest card store in the Montrose neighborhood, which he bought from its retiring owner, who had run it for 41 years. In 2022, thieves targeted that collectibles store, too.
"There has to be, when these people are caught, there has to be accountability," Holloway said.
The growing popularity of collectable cards has turned the industry into an investment market and turned the card shop sellers and buyers into a target for criminal activity.
"Similar to kind of a stock market or anything, there's only a certain number of these cards in the market, so as more and more popularity draws to these cards, it's going to start driving the price up, basically just some supply and demand, not enough copies around, but people willing to pay more and more," said Running to the Rip co-owner Zach Horwitz.
Horwitz says as Running to the Rip's merchandise grew in popularity and market value, and other card shop owners have upgraded security.
"We have a buzzer system similar to the way all the jewelry stores do. So, even if you did grab something and try to run out, the doors lock," Horwitz said. "We've had to had more security systems and more precautions in order to make sure that items don't leave the store, because once they do, they're probably gone forever."
Holloway is convinced that his stores are being targeted, but he feels that he has taken every precaution, and the city needs to do more to protect business owners like him.
"The mayor has to do something other than say, 'We need to give guidance to our kids,'" Holloway said. "There needs to be action taken because we cannot continue to allow this. They're putting us out of business. We are people paying taxes like anyone else. We work hard. We're supposed to deal with it. It's not that simple."
Both card shop owners say because there is no way to trace these items, it makes their shops more of a target.
Police said the burglary happened just before 2 a.m. The suspects fled the scene in an unknown vehicle.
Area Five detectives are investigating.
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