San Francisco police arrested two teenage suspects last month after a seller was pepper-sprayed in a park and robbed of his Pokémon card collection — one of several trading-card crimes to rattle Bay Area shops and collectors in recent weeks.

The May 28 ambush near Holyoke and Felton streets is the most visible in a string of incidents that have put collectibles dealers across the Bay Area on edge. As Pokémon card values have exploded since the pandemic — with individual cards now fetching hundreds or even millions of dollars — the hobby has attracted a new class of predatory crime targeting both private sellers and storefront businesses.

San Francisco police released arrest footage last week showing a transaction that turned violent on the afternoon of May 28, when a seller met a buyer at a park near Holyoke and Felton streets to sell a Pokémon card collection. The encounter went sideways fast: after pretending to examine and pay for the cards, a suspect pepper-sprayed the seller and fled toward a waiting vehicle with two additional occupants.

The victim, who suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was treated at the scene, had arranged the meeting through an online platform — the kind of peer-to-peer marketplace that has become a standard venue for trading-card deals, and increasingly a hunting ground for thieves.

SFPD investigators tracked the getaway vehicle using surveillance technology and located it the following day near Van Ness Avenue and Mission Street. Officers followed the suspects to O'Farrell and Polk streets, where they moved in and arrested two juvenile males. Both were booked into the Juvenile Justice Center on suspicion of second-degree robbery and conspiracy. A search warrant was executed at a connected residence on May 30 and additional evidence was recovered.

Mayor Daniel Lurie called it "good police work" and thanked the officers involved, according to ABC7 News.

The SF arrest comes against a backdrop of rising trading-card crime across the region. Thieves hit The Card Lab in Brentwood the same weekend as the San Francisco arrests, making off with roughly $15,000 worth of cards in approximately 39 seconds, according to ABC7. Earlier this year, 35,000 Pokémon cards were stolen from a San Jose business in what ABC7 described as an "odd break-in." NBC Bay Area also reported independently on the SF juvenile arrests this week.

Reggie Reyes, who runs Classic Materials Sports & Collectibles in San Francisco, told ABC7 the economics driving these crimes are straightforward: grading transforms the value of a single card dramatically. A card worth $60 to $70 in ungraded condition can fetch $650 once professionally graded and certified as a "perfect ten," he said, pointing to an example in his display case. That spread — and the portability of the merchandise — makes card collections an appealing target.

Reyes noted that built-in security features like serial numbers and barcodes can help recover stolen cards, and that he has seen successful recoveries. "When the card gets stolen, there's a barcode. And if you did take a picture of it, people can be a lookout," he told ABC7. "Sometimes they don't return back. But I've seen incidents when they are able to get their card back."

The price surge underlying this crime wave is real. Trading card values climbed sharply during COVID-era lockdowns, when nostalgia, boredom, and stimulus checks converged. The market has not cooled: a single Pokémon card — the Pikachu Illustrator, previously owned by Logan Paul — sold for a record $16.5 million earlier this year, according to ABC7.

For collectors who deal primarily through online meetups and local Facebook groups, the risks are now tangible. SFPD is asking anyone with information about the May 28 robbery to contact investigators; the case remains active.