After camping outside a West Hollywood Best Buy for more than 40 hours to be third in line for Pokémon's 30th anniversary trading cards, a fan was robbed of his iPhone just as the doors were about to open. The victim was not injured, and within a short time, he and Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputies had tracked the stolen device to a nearby GNC store and gotten it back.
The robbery was reported outside the Best Buy on La Brea Avenue shortly after 7 a.m. Wednesday, according to sheriff's radio traffic relayed by WEHOonline. The victim told the outlet he had waited outside the store since at least 4 p.m. Monday, holding his spot in line for Wednesday's release of the Pokémon Trading Card Game 30th Celebration set. The suspect made off with an orange iPhone 17 Plus before running north on La Brea toward Santa Monica Boulevard.
Deputies asked the victim to activate his phone's tracking feature, and the signal led them to the GNC inside the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center, just south of the Target anchoring the property, per the same account. The person who had taken the phone dropped it before deputies and the victim could catch up, and it was recovered on the scene. It was not immediately clear whether deputies detained or identified the person suspected of taking it. The suspect was described as approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall and 185 pounds, wearing a white shirt, black sweatpants and black-and-white Nike Air Force Ones.
Victim Shrugs Off the Incident
Despite the robbery, the victim told WEHOonline he did not want to press charges, calling the whole thing “no big deal.” Under California criminal procedure, that sentiment carries no legal weight on its own — local district attorneys hold sole authority over whether to file or drop charges, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. Prosecutors evaluate the strength of evidence and the public interest independently of what a victim says they want, meaning law enforcement's submitted reports could still factor into a charging decision regardless of the victim's stated preference.
Another Pokémon fan identified as Jose told WEHOonline he waited nearly two days outside the Best Buy just to open packs of the new cards, arriving Monday night alongside a growing crowd of enthusiasts who gathered outside the store ahead of its opening. Best Buy had promoted the September 16 release of Pokémon TCG: 30th Celebration merchandise, which included an elite trainer box, poster collection and tech sticker collection, warning shoppers the items were in-store only and available in limited quantities while supplies lasted. The store opened at 10 a.m.
A Global Anniversary Drop Fuels Local Friction
The 30th Celebration expansion launched worldwide on the same day, marking three decades since the Pokémon franchise debuted in Japan in 1996, according to Pokemon.com. The English release contains 199 collectible cards in total, including 128 main-set cards, 33 secret rares and 30 Classic Collection reprints pulled from the franchise's history, as detailed by VICE. That mix of secret rares and nostalgic reprints has made anniversary sets a magnet for resellers and, at times, for trouble.
Big-box card drops have a documented history of physical disputes tied to their resale value. In May 2021, Target temporarily suspended in-store sales of Pokémon and major sports trading cards nationwide after a physical altercation and a gun display outside a store in Brookfield, Wisconsin, according to Snopes. The friction has not stayed confined to the past — last month, Hoodline reported a Pokémon card collector in Kearny Mesa suffered a dislocated shoulder during an assault sparked by a line-cutting dispute at a store vending kiosk.
West Hollywood's Broader Crime Picture
The Best Buy sits inside the West Hollywood Gateway shopping center at 7100 Santa Monica Boulevard near La Brea Avenue, a 248,000-square-foot urban power center anchored by Target and Best Buy that opened in March 2004, according to the Beverly Press & Park Labrea News. It's a commercial corridor that has drawn scrutiny before: in May, Hoodline reported on a vehicle smash-and-grab burglary at The RealReal on Melrose Avenue, part of a string of retail break-ins across West Hollywood's shopping districts.
Even so, the broader numbers point to improvement. Violent crime and robberies in West Hollywood dropped 37% year-over-year through May 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, per Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statistics reported by WeHo Times. Still, property crimes like shoplifting and pickpocketing have remained an active local concern, and the sheriff's West Hollywood Station recorded 108 robberies and 1,652 larceny-thefts in 2024, clearing just 33% of robbery cases and 7% of larceny-thefts that year.
For the Pokémon fan who spent nearly two full days on the sidewalk only to lose his phone minutes before the doors opened, the ordeal ended about as well as it could have. He got his iPhone back, walked away unhurt, and still made it inside to see what three decades of Pokémon collecting had produced.
