72-Year-Old Pokémon Collector Arrested After Illegally Tracking Woman Who Restocked Local Stores
A 72-year-old Cleveland resident, Kent Kubasta, has been arrested for illegally tracking a woman who restocks local stores with Pokémon Trading Card Game products. According to reporting by Fox8, Kubasta secretly placed an electronic GPS tracker on the woman’s vehicle without her consent to monitor her delivery route and identify precisely where new card boxes were being dropped off at various retail locations.
Investigators determined that Kubasta’s intent was to use this surveillance information to quickly purchase newly stocked inventory before other collectors, giving him a significant competitive advantage. By knowing exactly when and where card boxes would be available, he could monopolize newly released Pokémon products.
Kubasta entered a plea of no contest to the charges against him. When approached by the press for comment, he declined to explain his actions or motivations further.
The arrest sheds light on the intense competition within the Pokémon card collecting community, where rare and newly released products are highly sought after and frequently sell out within hours of hitting store shelves. The case serves as a cautionary example of how the pursuit of collectibles can escalate into criminal behavior, with serious legal consequences for those who cross the line from enthusiastic collecting into illegal surveillance and stalking.