2 men arrested after breaking into a business and stealing Pokémon cards, Webster police say

WEBSTER, Texas (KTRK) -- Webster police said they arrested two men for stealing thousands of dollars worth of Pokémon cards and led them on a chase.

Early Tuesday morning, Ramon Cantu said he woke up to seeing someone breaking into his store in Webster.

"It was kind of hectic," Cantu recalled. "I was on the phone with dispatch, and I was trying to watch the video and relay any information."

Cantu said he watched as two people spent around two minutes going through his Cantu Collectibles business. He said they stole nearly $9,000 worth of product.

"They took some binders," Cantu said. "They tried to take some sealed product. They came around the corner and started taking stuff from behind the shelves."

Once outside, cameras captured the suspects driving away. As they did, an officer tried to pull them over.

Webster police said a chase started. Officers say it lasted 31 miles and ended in southwest Houston.

Nara Ouch and Ray Stidham were arrested. Both were charged with burglary of a building.

Ouch was also charged with evading arrest. They appeared in court this week, where the judge talked about what they were accused of stealing.

"They have value," the judge said. "I've seen them as much as $4,000 or $5,000. I just can't believe it, but that's neither here nor there."

The judge was talking about Pokémon cards.

"We've had cards that are well over $5,000, $10,000 cards," Cantu said. "We've had product come in that is vintage product that is $20,000 or $30,000."

When it comes to the more expensive cards, Cantu said there's actually some protection on them. He said there's a serial number on each one, and if they're stolen, they enter it into a system.

This way, if they end up with another collector, they would enter it into the system, and it would come up as stolen. "As a matter of fact, when they were in the store, they were looking for them because you could hear them on the microphone saying, 'Where's the slabs," Cantu recalled.

Cantu said that after their arrest, officers returned the Pokémon cards. While he got his, Cantu said other owners aren't as fortunate.

The Harris County Sheriff's office says it's investigating at least two other high-end Pokémon store thefts, and detectives are looking to see if the two arrested this week are connected.

"It's not worth it," Cantu said. "Don't try it. It's going to eventually catch up to you. You're going to get stopped."

Cantu said it was a sight he wasn't expecting to see early Tuesday morning, but he was glad he did, and he alerted police, who made an arrest.