Trading cards for a wildly popular worldwide media franchise continues to be a popular target for shoplifters here in the Valley and elsewhere.

A loss prevention employee of a Boardman grocery store on Route 224 told township police that she saw a shopper scanning his groceries, and bag two boxes of Pokemon trading cards without scanning the bar codes.

Since the cards were worth $170, the employee confronted the alleged shoplifter and managed to retrieve the cards before he fled the store.  The employee told officers that she believed the same customer had shoplifted more than $100 worth of items during seven visits to the store over the previous week.

The employee is working with the police to identify the suspect.

The owner of the Pokémon trademark says it is one of the most popular and successful entertainment franchises in the world, encompassing video games, mobile apps, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, animation, and movies, Play! Pokémon competitive events, and licensed products.

It was first established in Japan in 1996 with the launch of the Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green video games for the Game Boy system. The video games were released internationally in 1998 as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.

 Pokémon is one of the most popular trading card games in the world and has been shipped to 89 countries and regions in 14 languages.

Early last month, a Struthers man was accused of stealing Pokemon cards worth $800 from a Boardman department store.

The popularity of Pokemon with shoplifters isn’t limited to Boardman.

According to the Crimewatch website, police near Lancaster, Pennsylvania are looking for two men they believe stuffed $365 worth of trading cards into their pockets before leaving a store.

In 2022, a federal judge sentenced a Georgia man to three years in prison after he used COVID relief funds to buy a $58,000 Pokemon card.