Man allegedly tries stealing Pokemon card worth $960 at Suntec hobby convention, police alerted
A video of a man who was caught while allegedly trying to steal a Pokemon card at HobbyCon 2026 has gone viral.
Instagram user @jaxstopofficial, who was a vendor at the event organised by SG HobbyCon and held at Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre on March 7 and 8, shared the post on social media on March 9 with the title "I Caught a Pokémon Thief in Singapore!"
The vendor, who is from the Philippines, says in the caption: "While vending at SG HobbyCon, a guy was flipping through my binder and pulled out my Shining Celebi. My team was busy helping other customers when I noticed him slide the card under his phone and slowly move it toward his pocket.
"Little did he know… I was right behind him the whole time like a ninja."
The video shows the man browsing through a binder of Pokemon cards with the in-screen caption explaining that the recording started after he had slipped the card into his pocket.
He walks towards the exit as the vendor follows him, calling out to him a few times before he finally says, "Hey, this guy is a thief, he stole a card."
The man denies stealing the Shining Celebi card, which was priced at $960.
"Hold on, that's my bad, OK? I didn't mean to," he says as he pulls his phone and the card out of his pocket.
A person, off-camera, who sounds like he was the event organiser, asks if the vendor wants to call the police.
The vendor replies that he will leave it to the organiser. "We could put a post in Facebook on something," he says to the organiser.
The man, who appears calm the whole time, claims to have done it before:
Sincerely right, I've done this before. As in, I accidentally took people's things and I returned them back.
The vendor, however, disputes the man's version of what happened.
"No no no, you looked at my people, OK, I have it on video, you looked at them, you put it in your pocket, OK, I saw it, so don't lie to me, OK," the vendor says.
"I sincerely tell you right now, I didn't mean to do it. You can imagine anything you want. You can even post me or whatever right now," the man says. He gives his name as "Matthew" before making his way to the exit.
The title at the end says, "'Matthew' ran away when we attempted to call the cops!" It's not clear if there was any attempt to detain him after the video ended.
'I guess he's working for Team Rocket'
In the post, jaxstopofficial says: "Not gonna lie… hunting Pokemon thieves feels almost as fun as hunting Pokemon." The video has garnered over 243,000 views, 930 reactions, and 240 comments.
Based on the alleged thief's crew cut, many assumed that he was serving his national service.
"Must be recruit pay not enough," suggested an Instagram user.
"Wah, insane accident! Should accidentally steal his money also," another user said.
One Facebook user felt he should have been handed over to the police.
"Letting him go with just this post is doing a disservice to the vendors he's going to steal from in the future," said the netizen.
There were also references to Team Rocket — a crime syndicate in the Pokemon series.
"I guess he's working for Team Rocket," said a Facebook user. "This one is not Team Rocket but Team Pocket," another joked.
"Thank you for catching him," said an Instagram user, while another referenced the iconic Pokemon tagline: "Gotta Catch 'Em All."
Stomp has reached out to jaxstopofficial, SG HobbyCon, and the police for comment.
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