Nearly $25,000 worth of Pokémon trading cards were stolen from a game store in Carroll County, according to Maryland State Police and the store’s owners.

Deputies said the theft at Storm Crow Games in Eldersburg was reported Saturday around 7 p.m. The store owner told police multiple collections of the popular trading cards were stolen.

Deputies initially reported the cards had an expected value of $19,000. But on Friday store owners said the stolen collections, which included rare and one-of-a-kind cards, were valued at $25,000.

Deputies said they are working to identify two men in connection with the theft. One was described as wearing a black hoodie, gray sweatpants and white shoes. The other was wearing a black hoodie that read “Crooks Castles” on the front with blue jeans, deputies said.

In a social media post last week, the store said it believes the suspects were involved in robberies at similar businesses in Bel Air, Ellicott City and Reisterstown. However, neither state police nor Howard County police confirmed the cases are connected.

Howard County Police said a shoplifting incident was reported recently at Time Warp Video Games in Ellicott City after two suspects stole video games.

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Pokémon card craze

Pokémon was born in Japan in the 1990s and spread around the globe. It’s grown into a mega franchise of video games, manga, anime, trading cards, collectibles, mobile apps and more.

Pokémon trading cards have become a coveted collectible in recent years, with some selling for thousands of dollars. Demand for the cards has led some local games shops to put limits on the number of new Pokémon cards customers can purchase.

In mid-August, a trading card store in Detroit experienced a similar burglary when thieves took nearly $5,000 in cards, CBS News Detroit reported.

In Japan, fast food giant McDonald’s ended its Happy Meal campaign after resellers bought the meals and threw out the food to get their hands on the included Pokémon cards.

WJZ is a media partner of The Baltimore Banner. See the original report.