Trading cards worth thousands stolen from Roswell store

ROSWELL, Ga - A man with a sledgehammer smashed his way into Dave's Sports Cards in Roswell last week. Owner Dave Olivieri says the thief was likely in the store before, because he went straight to the vault where the high-end boxes and single cards are kept.

"Things that are special or have a higher dollar amount we keep in the vault room for display and for sale," said Olivieri.

The video shows a man wiping out everything on the shelf, then ripping the camera off the wall.

Olivieri says fortunately his Mickey Mantle collection was in his safe at the time. But Olivieri says more than $20,000 worth of cards are gone, including a very rare box.

"2008 Topps Triple Threads baseball sealed box, I was the only store in the state that had it," said Olivieri.

Just days earlier, there was a theft of trading cards in Cherokee County. Display cases were shattered and cleaned out at BT Collectibles. Owner Bob Mulligan, says more thieves took more than $100,000 worth of trading cards.

Olivieri says he has been around trading cards all his life. He says in recent years there has been an increase in break-ins like these. He believes it is the popularity and the value of the cards. 

"If they're lucky enough to pull a monster card out of a box or get a PSA graded card, they might crack that card out of the case and re-sell the card raw at an astronomical dollar amount," said Olivieri.

Olivieri says earlier this week there were also two stores in Tennessee that were burglarized. Investigators are checking to see if all the thefts are connected.