Police have charged a 72 year-old man in Ohio who, in a desperate bid to locate Pokémon cards, illegally planted a tracking device on a delivery driver’s vehicle.
According to Wayne County Municipal Court records obtained by Aftermath, Kent Kubasta admitted to the first-degree misdemeanor in June, placing a SpyTech GPS on the Pokémon courier’s car. The device connects to a smartphone application to track real-time movement, which Kubasta hoped to use to find the delivery destination of Pokémon cards.
Kubasta was found guilty on Monday, with his particular offense carrying a punishment of up to 180 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines.
The driver found the tracking device on her car while delivering Pokémon cards to a Walmart store. Her name is redacted in court documents, presumably for her safety.
Randy Kendall, manager of the Operation Fandom store in Wooster, told Fox8 that the information Kubasta was seeking via illegal means could likely be easily found online.
“Facebook, Instagram — but especially TikTok and things like that. If you follow certain people, they will let you know when it’s going to drop. They will have links you can click to say supposedly this store is going to have them,” Kendall said.
“They are connected. I mean they are literally — they follow different groups, they talk to different people, people that work in the stores. Even they will try to get as much intel as they can so they can get a chance to get it.”
The overwhelming, increasing demand for Pokémon cards have resulted in a number of crimes in recent years, with a group of masked robbers stealing over $100,000 of the tradable merchandise in February. Last year, a similarly valued amount of goods were stolen by a former USPS employee, who took packages meant for an auction house.
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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.
