Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Nationals Crime Spree

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Yoshi- said:
I judged YGO nationals this year:

4 years of pokemon: 2 stolen bags
1 event ygo: 4 stolen backs, 3 stolen decks, 2 crying kids, 1 stolen lunch and one death threat °_O
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Eeeesh.

I know YGO players will steal anything, but that's harsh.
 
99.9% of Pokemon Players are fine. We all know that. At Nationals this year, we could have 2000+ people in the hall. It only takes a few blatant thiefs to run amok and steal what ever isn't nailed down. I would bet at most peoples pokemon league, city events, and such, someone could leave a binder full of stuff on a table and NOTHING would happen. These national and even some states, you get just one person who is a committed thief, we will have problems.

By the way, SIGNS ARE WORTHLESS, because it is COMMON SENSE, the signs are like cry wolf. But once decks and things are reported missing (there is a wolf in town), the Tournament Organizer NEED TO ANNOUNCE IT. 99% of events we go to, nothing goes missing. But once stuff starts going missing, there should be an ALARM / WARNING system.

When my Nephew got our deck stolen, he was bummed. I am sure it wasn't the first thing stolen that day. And I felt REALLY bad that later that night, where this 19 year old guy was brought almost to tears when his entire collection was stolen. I think he wish he heard of the CRIME SPREE going on.
 
I don't think it was that bad. My brother was leaving stuff around and none of it was stolen, and I sometimes left my red bag full of all my stuff on the table, and even though most of the time there were people there, their was often nobody. Nothing was stolen.
 
Unfortunately people steal stuff. It's a fact of life. Think about it this way: if someone left a $100 bill sitting out on a table and then turned away, would you be surprised to hear that it had been stolen? Decks are routinely worth more than $100, and anyone coming to a Pokemon event to steal knows this. Also decks are incredibly easy to ferret away. A pair of cargo pants is enough to hide a stolen deck in. This means that people are going to steal. I wish it were not so, but keeping a close eye on your stuff, especially when surrounded by thousands of people is a must.

The nice thing about Pokemon, though, is that it seems to draw in a more considerate class of player. Does this mean that thefts will not occur? Not hardly. While there may be thousands of decent people playing the Pokemon TCG, it only takes one stealing stuff to give a bunch of people a bad time, and the higher the attendance at an event, the more likely it is to see (or not see) thieves. So yes, I agree that announcements should be made to remind players to keep track of their stuff-- especially when thefts are happening-- but I also think it should be common sense for those players.
 
At it's core Pokemon promotes an envrionment where friendship and sportsmanship take priority. As a franchise it's good to it's core -games, TV show especially, everything.

Yu-gi-oh though, even the people in the TV shows are jerks. I think that it starts at the franchises core. It's rotten, wacked out core.
 
I believe violence is the answer. I don't think I would react very kindly to someone trying to steal my belongings. Getting banned from the event just isn't enough sometimes.
 
Absoltrainer said:
Let me ask a serious question here.

If I'm at an event, let's say Nats or Worlds, and someone literally picks up my deck box and bolts for it. Would my running after him, and tackling him, or grabbing him, or some other way physically stopping him get me in trouble with Pokémon?

We're assuming I don't have time to report him, and he isn't going to let me talk to him. I witness him take my stuff and run. I take him down, subdue him and get my stuff back, or I let him get away.

Alternatively, he takes my stuff, I go talk to him, he says some profanity to me and walks away, am I in the right to take back my stuff?

Because obviously fighting is never the answer, and I'm not promoting fighting or violence but at the same time, if I walk away and tell a judge, "hey that guy took my stuff" how can I prove it? How can the judge in all honesty believe me over the other person. What’s to prove I'm not some guy trying to steal from another person by claiming something is mine. All the while he might just get away and I may never see him again.

Another situation, I yell thief, or somehow get a judge's attention as I bolt after him. Then take him down.

Because in all seriousness, if I watch someone steal from me, I won't walk away to report it while he gets away, and I'm sure as hell going to get my stuff back.

Also if he’s subdued, then he can then be handed over to the judges/security/official for them to deal with.

How would Pokémon rule this situation? Or would it be a very specific case-by-case basis? Food for thought.
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One solution is to follow said person around shouting to anyone that will listen that he is a thief and just stole X and to keep following him, not let him out of your site until he gives the cards back out of shame or he leaves the venue where you can beat him to a pulp.
 
pokeMATHter said:
Our first Nationals (2004) we were sitting around waiting for the tournament to start. I see a guy come around the end of the table across the isle with a box of Team Aqua/Team Magma and stash it in his bag. It stood out to me because we had a spare box at home, and I though we should have brought it to sell. Not 2 minutes later, this guy starts panicking: Where is my box? Where is my box? This went on for about 15/20 minutes, with the thief playing dumb. I flag down a judge and tell him my story who in turn invites Dave Schwimmer over to talk to me. I report what I saw, and Dave goes over to the guy with the bag and asks if he can look inside. Sure enough, right there on top is the box. The guy is like "It was just a joke." "I was going to give it back." Nice try, but it had been at least 30 minutes since the box was reported stolen. A little too long to be a punch line. Five minutes later event security is escorting the guy out of Origins. See ya buddy! We don't need players like that in Organized Play!
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Haha thats was me and I totally forgot about that! Thanks for the assist!
 
Around the time of 'EX Unseen Forces' the guy running the Pre-Release had 3 boxes stolen from right under his nose. I assumed this happened a lot, because all he did was ask if anyone had seen them (He knew they'd been stolen) and then he gave up. Very depressing that people will take things which people have worked hard to earn.
 
SLOW DECK said:
When my Nephew got our deck stolen, he was bummed. I am sure it wasn't the first thing stolen that day. And I felt REALLY bad that later that night, where this 19 year old guy was brought almost to tears when his entire collection was stolen. I think he wish he heard of the CRIME SPREE going on.
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100% agreed on this!

Our house was robbed last year... but before our house, at least 2 others had been broken into 2 days before in the same neighborhood. If we had known that had happened, we would've been more careful and nothing would have happened =/
 
While I have never been to Nationals, I have a bit of a scary story to tell about that might be related to this.

Last year, the Thursday before the US Nationals, a man robbed a woman at gunpoint. Here's a snippet of a news post on the incident:

A woman was held up at gunpoint inside the Indiana Convention Center during set-up for a convention. It happened last Thursday at 4:30 p.m.

Metro Police Det. Gary Riggs said a woman who works on the second floor was followed into a nearby restroom by a man "wearing a black knit mask over his face. He pulled a weapon, pointed it at her and demanded cash."

Riggs said the woman gave the gunman her purse, screamed and ran out the restroom where a male colleague came to her aid. She was not hurt, nor was anyone else, but the crime has raised concerns.

Cedric Alexander, who passes through the Convention Center several times a week said, "especially at a place like this, to do an armed robbery? That's bizarre."
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For those who are interested in reading up on this, see WTHR (and their original article) and Fox 59.

However, there is one major point in the first article that should be known to all that got something stolen: "we have about 100 cameras in the facility". While the footage from Nationals is probably gone, this is something to remember for future years.
 
immewnity said:
While I have never been to Nationals, I have a bit of a scary story to tell about that might be related to this.

Last year, the Thursday before the US Nationals, a man robbed a woman at gunpoint. Here's a snippet of a news post on the incident:



For those who are interested in reading up on this, see WTHR (and their original article) and Fox 59.

However, there is one major point in the first article that should be known to all that got something stolen: "we have about 100 cameras in the facility". While the footage from Nationals is probably gone, this is something to remember for future years.
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Oh my god, I remember that :frown:
 
Gone

wasn't going to Post but then thought about it and decided to let people know just how quick and sneaky people can be. John Silvestro and myself went down to the play area to do some trading Saturday night. Not to many people but there was a scattering of people throughout the room. Was working to a few trades with some people at one table when I was called to another table to check out there goods. I had all my stuff in a suitcase which was always on top of the table. When I packed up my bag to move to the other table to let them have a look I noticed one of my binders was not in it. So I went back to the table I had just left to see if I had forgot to pack it. No!!! It was not on the table, the people sitting there claimed not to have it yet no binder. So some how between 3 people looking at all my trade stuff and doing nothing more then moving to another table to trade, Someone managed to get hod of the binder, walk out of the room and make off with over $1000 worth of cards. You read right, over a $1000. Everything from multiplies of Yanmega Prime, Magnezone, Mew, Donphans and so on and so on. Every legend set times 4,5,6??? Foil supporters by the pages and the list goes on.
So after Judging all day and just wanting to go down and do some trading this is how my night ended up. What an expensive night out with my boy Sniper.
 
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