Two males who allegedly stole $300,000 value of Magic: The Gathering playing cards from a Indiana retailer organising at tabletop conference Gen Con have been charged with felony theft, based on the Marion County Prosecutor’s Workplace.
Thomas Dunbar and Andrew Giaume, who created a recreation known as Castle Assault, have been charged with felony theft for his or her components within the alleged theft of the Magic: The Gathering Playing cards from retailer and event organizer Pastimes Comics & Video games. Ought to Dunbar and Giaume be discovered responsible, they face one to 6 years in jail and as much as a $10,000 tremendous. The Marion County prosecutor’s workplace mentioned the costs come after an investigation the spanned each Indiana and New York, the place Dunbar and Giaume reside.
“Through the course of the investigation, the stolen merchandise was situated and recovered as proof,” Marion County prosecutor Ryan Mears mentioned in a press release issued to Polygon. “The submitting of fees immediately ensures that there are legal penalties for this conduct.”
An affidavit offered to Polygon particulars the theft and subsequent investigation. On Aug. 2, Pastimes Video games supervisor John Temple reported the playing cards as stolen from his firm’s designated area on the Gen Con present ground. Days later, police acquired safety footage that confirmed the alleged theft, which featured two white males matching Dunbar and Giaume’s descriptions utilizing a pallet jack to relocate a pallet stuffed with bins wrapped in plastic. As soon as the boys eliminated the pallet of playing cards from the Pastimes sales space, it’s alleged that they then hid it below a curtain. Later, the boys appeared once more this time with a “pink hand cart” stuffed with Magic: The Gathering card bins, unwrapped from the plastic beforehand affixing them to the pallet.
Safety footage confirmed the 2 males, whom additionally matched Dunbar and Giaume’s descriptions, transferring the playing cards from the Indiana Conference Middle, by a resort, and into the parking storage, the place they presumably loaded the bins right into a automobile. Safety footage then confirmed the boys leaving the storage with an empty cart. The affidavit even features a picture of the automobile the boys left in, a 2023 Nissan Murano, driving in Indiana with the cardboard bins seen within the trunk of the automobile. In the end, police had been in a position to join that rented automobile to Dunbar.
The pair had been in a position to be linked to Gen Con as a result of they’d each initially registered badges of their names. The affidavit says the names had been modified to Scott Fischer and Ashriel Lockheart someday between Aug. 1 and Aug. 5.
![Grainy photos showing two men pulling a pallet full of boxes](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/lYLrPcbMxLRdN5oiKePsHxE8hFM=/0x0:571x441/1200x0/filters:focal(0x0:571x441):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24899059/theft.png)
Video proof isn’t the one materials talked about within the affidavit. Someplace earlier than Dunbar and Giaume left Indiana for New York, the 2 allegedly tried to enter the realm at Gen Con shared by Asmodee and Atomic Mass Video games, which make Marvel and Star Wars tabletop video games amongst others. An individual contracted to work that sales space believed the pair was making an attempt to interrupt in, and snapped a photograph earlier than they left. When police went public with the picture, that contractor acknowledged Dunbar.
A New York lawyer later contacted police, saying he represented an individual who was “coerced” into shopping for the pallet of Magic: The Gathering playing cards for $4,000. The particular person didn’t understand the price, the lawyer mentioned, till they got here house and noticed the Gen Con heist story on the information. On Aug. 25, New York state police went to that lawyer’s workplace, the place they discovered 115 bins of Magic: The Gathering buying and selling playing cards and Dungeons & Dragons books, based on the affidavit. Police are holding the fabric as proof.
Polygon has reached out to Pastimes Video games for remark.