'Really upsetting:' Las Vegas comic book store sees two break-ins within weeks

LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — A Las Vegas comic book store has been broken into twice in the past month, costing the small business thousands of dollars in just a few weeks.

The owner of Maximum Comics, Brandon Dold, said the second time around the thieves stole several valuable collectibles, including a certified Pokémon video game worth thousands of dollars alone.

“A majority of what they stole from what we can tell is Pokémon cards. They also stole Disney Wakanda cards, they stole a very specific CGC [Certified Guaranty Company] graded 'Pokémon Emerald' video game, which was valuable, and then they also stole an entire box of about 300 comic books that were supposed to be released tomorrow,” Dold said.

Just two weeks ago, Dold said someone had broken into his business’ storage unit and wiped it clean.

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“We had a storage unit in this same parking lot, and somebody broke into that unit a couple of weeks ago and stole all of our inventory out of there as well,” he said.

Dold estimates this second break-in will be more than $10,000 in losses for the small business.

“They broke through our front door and stole some things, damaged pretty much everything in our front area. They also stole our cash registers and threw our computers on the ground.”

On top of the loss, he said the comic store’s security cameras did not catch the suspects in action and believed they disabled the system before breaking into the business.

“Our security system, both our alarm and our camera system, all shut off right before any of this happened, so we don’t know what happened with that, but none of it was captured within the building," Dold said.

Thankfully, the neighboring business was able to capture the suspects leaving the area after ransacking the store.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department's latest crime statistics for the northwest area, where the business is located, show a 9.8% decrease in burglary/breaking. and entering compared to last year.

But Dold fears the suspects may target other businesses in the area based on how well organized they behaved in the security footage.

“You know, this isn’t some huge corporation. This is a small business that my own family relies on to take care of them,” he said. “You’re directly hurting real small groups of people by targeting small businesses like this. It’s really upsetting.”