Once again, The Pokemon Company and McDonald's have teamed up to offer exclusive Pokemon Trading Card Game cards in the fast food chain's Happy Meals. This time, the new cards featuring creatures like Bewear, Chinchou, and Cutiefly come with their own unique rules and a special four-card pack with every order so that way kids can play a game as they eat. However, due to how some trading cards can go for high prices online, some adults have been trying to make a buck off of the special Pokemon TCG packs.
In Arizona, 32-year-old Troy Partin had allegedly run a stop sign and was pulled over by police for it. When asked why he failed to stop, he was caught without his driver's license. Due to Partin's previous criminal history, the officer searched his car to end up finding 200 packages of the Match Battle Pokemon TCG Happy Meal cards. Once law enforcement found out that Partin was a McDonald's employee, it was made clear that the cards were stolen from his work place.
Partin his job at McDonald's and was charged with theft and trafficking stolen property, due to the fact that he told the officer that he was selling the Pokemon cards to "a buddy." Partin was already on probation due to drug-related charges before the theft. He's now serving time at the Graham County Adult Detention Facility.
Partin allegedly lied to the officer who pulled him over, saying that the cards were purchased rather than stolen in order to be re-sold to his so-called "friend." Even if the culprit truly did have an accomplice in the theft, it's most likely that their end goal was to sell these cards to whoever would pay the highest price. How high people are willing to pay for Pokemon cards has been a recent headline across many news outlets, as the tabletop game has dealt with scalping issues that were only stopped with heavy restrictions.
Even though most of the drastic events over the Pokemon Trading Card Game have died down, it seems some people are still willing to resort to theft to try and cash in on what might be valuable cards either now or later down the road. However, in Troy Partin's case, the cards he stole aren't even the most expensive as the recent Special Delivery Charizard card is worth twice as much compared to the $120 dollars worth of cards the police recovered from him, and yet he's now serving time for it.
Source: Gila Herald (via Dexerto)