Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Southern California Card Heists Intensify With $300,000 Robbery and Simi Valley Smash-and-Grab

Investigators are probing potential links to earlier break-ins across the region.

Overview

  • In West Los Angeles, a customer leaving RWT Collective was held at gunpoint in an underground garage and robbed of a briefcase of rare Pokémon cards valued at roughly $300,000, according to police and the shop’s owners.
  • Hours earlier in Simi Valley, surveillance video captured about five suspects breaking into Simi Sportscards around 3:30 a.m., smashing display cases and fleeing with high-value Pokémon and sports cards.
  • Simi Sportscards co-owner Jake Miller estimates losses at about $50,000, including damaged inventory, with the store previously hit in April 2025.
  • LAPD and Simi Valley police are reviewing security footage and comparing evidence; no arrests have been announced in the Southern California cases.
  • Shop owners report stepped-up security and shared watchlists, as similar card thefts were recently reported in Burbank, La Verne, San Gabriel and the Houston area, while UK police arrested two suspects in a separate warehouse burglary.