Overnight in downtown Lake Park, a trading-card shop built with hurricane-resistant glass turned out to be no match for a handheld chainsaw. Deputies say a West Palm Beach man sliced a triangular hole in the storefront of a local card shop early Thursday, then slipped inside and grabbed about $12,000 in Pokémon cards before slipping back into the night.
Surveillance video shows the intruder first tried a more old-school method, hurling a rock at the front window around 1:30 a.m. When that did not work, investigators say he returned roughly 90 minutes later with a battery-powered saw and cut his way through the glass.
Detectives later arrested 33-year-old Clayton Andrew Warren, a West Palm Beach resident, after tracing a white Jeep Grand Cherokee seen near the business and serving search warrants at his home. Deputies say they were looking for the stolen cards, a chainsaw and clothing matching what showed up on the shop’s cameras, according to CBS12. Warren is facing felony counts that include burglary causing more than $1,000 in damage and grand theft of property valued between $10,000 and $20,000.
Collection Realm, which operates at 800 10th Street in downtown Lake Park, bills itself as a hub for Pokémon, One Piece and other trading-card collectibles. The shop’s website lists sealed booster boxes alongside individual singles. Hobby stores and big-box retailers have been warning about rising thefts, and a recent case in which a Pompano Beach man arrested allegedly used online marketplaces to move stolen cards shows how easy it can be to fence hot merchandise.
How deputies traced the suspect
Investigators say the burglar tried to stay low-profile with a mask, a black Adidas cap and clear-framed glasses. According to CBS12, those details ended up being a giveaway: staff recognized the look from a prior in-store visit that had been recorded in the shop’s customer database.
Deputies also discovered blood near the cut glass and collected it as DNA evidence. From there, license-plate reader cameras helped connect the white Jeep Grand Cherokee seen on surveillance footage to Warren. Detectives allege the thief crawled through the triangular opening, grabbed sealed boxes and individually sleeved singles, then walked out with two bags of cards.
Trading-card thefts on the rise
Pokémon and other trading cards are no longer just kids’ collectibles. Sealed booster boxes and graded singles now command serious cash on secondary markets, and that kind of money tends to draw the attention of thieves.
High-profile burglaries - including a 2023 case in Forest Lake, Minnesota, where suspects were accused of cutting through a wall to haul off roughly $250,000 in Pokémon packs - have highlighted how widespread the problem has become, as reported by the Star Tribune.
Legal consequences
Under Florida law, theft of property worth between $750 and $20,000 is typically charged as a third-degree felony, which can carry up to five years in prison plus fines, according to the Florida Senate. Authorities say the investigation into the Lake Park break-in remains active, and the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information about the chainsaw burglary to contact its tip line.
