Shortly before the public opening of this 2023’s annual board game convention, Gen Con, around $300,000 worth of Magic: The Gathering cards were reported stolen. Caught on security camera at the Indiana Convention Center in downtown Indianapolis, two suspects were seen carting out a large pallet of cardboard boxes stashed with various sets of Magic cards, each worth as much as $400 dollars, with rare and legendary cards in each set potentially multiplying the value.
The cards were taken from the floor of the Indiana Convention Center and were brought to a parking garage where they were stashed before ending up in New York City, where they have since been recovered.
Following the theft, Indiana Metropolitan Release identified New York residents Thomas J. Dunbar and Andrew Pearson Giaume, designers of the board game Castle Assault, as persons of interest. On August 30, local news outlet WTHR reported that the stolen cards had been returned following assistance from the New York State Police. The cards are expected to be used as evidence.
Kotaku has reached out to the Indiana Metropolitan Police Department for further comment.
Following the identification of Dunbar and Giaume, the board game Castle Assault was review-bombed.
Spotted by Dicebreaker, the game’s rating on Board Game Geek has taken a sharp turn for the worse as users piled in to give the game a one, and leave comments such as “The game is just full of Magic. Selling cheap Gen Con, what a steal;” “went to Gen con to become a con;” “ironically, no Thief class;” “*insert thief insult here*;” and one that references the security footage in which one of the suspects can be seen wearing a Castle Assault shirt: “I hear they have cool shirts at least.”
On August 17, the Indiana Metropolitan Police Department posted an update stating that they were no longer looking for Dunbar and Giaume.