A massive prized collection of Nintendo Entertainment System cartridges, worth tens of thousands of dollars, has been stolen from a man in Washington, US.
According to a report from KCEN 6 News, Roger Holler and his family were recently out of town. They returned home to discover that the house had been broken into, and the shelves that had held over 860 NES games had been cleared out.
Holler had spent almost 40 years building the collection, which had an estimated value between $50,000 and $100,000. He was just three games away from completing a full library.
Holler recalled his reaction as he discovered his collection had been stolen.
“I punched the wall, I kicked the wall. I’m like, what the heck’s going on?” he said.
Over nearly four decades, Holler had been hunting NES games across Washington, visiting stores and conventions in his pursuit of a full collection.
The collector was gifted his first NES console by his mother at age 11, igniting what he previously believed to be a lifelong passion.
“To me, this week, it feels like I’m losing my mom again,” Holler said.
Holler had planned to pass down the collection for the next generation of family.
“It was going to go to the grandkids,” he explained.
“It was ultimately gonna be for them — for their college education, whatever the case may be — that was the end goal.”
Following the incident, Holler lamented that his collecting days may now be over.
“Truly, this definitely hurts, and I don’t think that I will ever collect another thing again in my life.”
His son, Chris Sterling, had joined his father on the hunt for many years. Addressing the mysterious culprit, Sterling said that all would be forgiven if they returned the collection.
“I guarantee you,” Sterling said, “if you were to show up tomorrow and say, ‘Hey, here’s your things, I apologize,’ he’d probably just hug you, cry and say thank you. Because that’s just who he is.”
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
