Two Arrested After Crawling Through Wall in £10,000 Pokémon Card Warehouse Raid in Retford

Two men from Leeds have been arrested after breaking into a storage warehouse in Retford by removing bricks from the wall, stealing over £10,000 worth of collectible Pokémon cards.

The targeted burglary took place just after 1:00 AM on Saturday, December 27, at a warehouse located on Aurillac Way in Retford. The culprits cut through the facility's security fencing before systematically removing bricks from an exterior wall to gain access to the stock of valuable trading cards inside. Their intrusion triggered the building's alarm system, alerting local police forces.

A getaway van, suspected to be using cloned registration plates, was identified on CCTV and tracked as it travelled from Nottinghamshire into South Yorkshire and eventually to Manchester. Officers from Greater Manchester Police and Nottinghamshire Police intercepted the vehicle at a storage yard in Manchester, catching two suspects, aged 24 and 26, as they were unloading boxes of the stolen cards. Police also recovered a variety of tools inside the vehicle, including a sledgehammer.

Detective Sergeant Andrea Brown praised the collaborative cross-border police work, noting that within a few hours of the crime occurring, suspects were in custody and the high-value goods were secured. Both men remain in custody on suspicion of commercial burglary as investigations continue to identify any other accomplices.