A crook who made off with almost $10,000 worth of merchandise from a trading card shop in SoHo owned by football legend Tom Brady visited the shop three times the day of the theft, and may have perpetrated similar scams in Brooklyn and Tennessee, police said Thursday.
The first visit to the Lafayette St. store happened just before noon on Oct. 20, when the scam artist tricked the cashier into thinking he had paid for $2,623 worth of Pokémon Evolution and Topps baseball cards by manipulating the credit card machine to look like the transaction was accepted when it was, in fact, declined, NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press briefing.
Later in the day, the suspect returned and “bought” an additional $2,558 worth of cards from the same employee.
On his final visit, just before 6:30 p.m., he used the same trick to walk away with $4,528 in trading cards.
“For some reason the employee…hands him the credit card machine and he manipulates it in some fashion so the sale is approved,” Kenny said. “And rinse, repeat, does the same thing. Tries the credit card, doesn’t work. ‘Here, you try it,’ and he manipulates the machine.”
Cops do not believe the store worker was in on the scam, Kenny said.
After police released images of the suspect, a worker at a card store in Brooklyn who called the Crime Stoppers tip line said the same man stole $500 worth of baseball cards on Oct. 1 by using a fake passport when asked for identification.
Police in Nashville called the NYPD on Nov. 14 and said they recognized the man as the suspect in a case where $3,000 worth of collector playing cards were stolen using the same trick, Kenny said. They told the NYPD they believed the suspect sold the cards on eBay and at baseball card shows in Alabama.
“So this guy, he’s all over the place,” Kenny said, adding that attempts to use facial recognition software to identify the man have failed.
The Manhattan card store employee described the suspect as “friendly” and “engaging,” and said he told the worker that he went to Pace University, but police believe that’s a lie, Kenny said.
The SoHo store, which is part of a new chain, CardVault by Tom Brady, specializes in trading cards and high-end sports memorabilia. Brady owns a 50 percent stake in the company
