Man charged in $45,000 heist -- of Magic cards

[n2doc]

By LEVI PULKKINEN
SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

King County prosecutors have filed felony theft charges against a Burien man accused of stealing $45,000-worth of Magic: The Gathering playing cards from his employer.

Donald J. Henry -- a 26-year-old formerly employed by the maker of the role-playing card game, Wizards of the Coast -- stands accused of stealing hundreds of rare Magic cards from the company's Renton headquarters. According to charging documents, the cards were seized after an acquaintance of Henry's tried to sell them at a Magic tournament in Portland.

Writing the court, a Renton police detective said Wizards of the Coast contacted authorities in September after another employee reported seeing one vendor with dozens of rare, promotional cards for sale at the Portland event.

The employee determined that a Burien storeowner was acquainted with Henry and suspected Henry had stolen the cards out of a storage locker at Wizards of the Coast, the detective continued. Henry, who'd been hired in December 2009, was fired after an investigation was launched in September.

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http://www.seattlepi.com/local/432170_magic21.html

[Hawkeye-X]

1. I retired from Magic: the Gathering

Yes, I know these cards are damn addictive and you always want to get the upper hand. Not always the case as I got into trouble for someone else's funds to pay for my addiction. Eventually everything was paid back, and it's been a little over 12 years since I played. I still play online MTG, but not as frequently as I used to play.

My wife and I almost broke up after I saw the NYC comic shop and they were running daily tournaments. I abandoned her (she was my girlfriend at that time) and played, while my wife went to get my parents (who was staying in a local hotel) and get me out of it, for good. That was 12 years ago. My parents and wife still worry about the addiction, but assured both that I'm not active physically, and play MTG computer games every now and then. I decided right there to marry her, because mainly I've never had anyone who cared and loved me other than my parents. A year later, a proposal was made at the Manhattan Mall, the rest was history.

[gratuitous]

2. Damn

Every now and then I reflect on my younger self, when I was just a little gratuitous. I consider the range and the availability of nerdly games like Magic and so forth, and I'm very thankful they weren't around at that time. Not that my life is an all-star cavalcade of endless beauty, but in the alternative? It wouldn't have been pretty.

[HopeHoops]

3. When I was introduced to it (looooong ago), the guy who showed it to me called it "The Addiction".

We've got a pretty good collection and a lot of decks we built ourselves that we keep together. It is fun to each pick one and see how it performs. It is weird how a deck will absolutely destroy one color combination yet be wimpy against another.

I'm an old D&D geek from the mid-70's on so Magic was a logical extension.

But THIS guy either had a REALLY serious addiction (in which case I would recommend he switch to Internet porn), or he planned to sell them.

[PassingFair]

4. My husband spent $2,000 on Pokemon cards in the late 90's...

under the guise of "bonding" with our daughter
at tournaments.

Over the years, he has given away most of the
"valuable" cards to kids we've known...

I refer to the cards remaining as our
"retirement fund", as he assured me of their
value constantly when he was deeply into his
addiction.

Now he collects MatchBox cars.

I wish he would grow up.

[slampoet]

5. They Shouldn't have tried to sell that "Infinite Sheldon" Card.

[Broken_Hero]

6. Must have been a shitload

of Black Lotus's in that collection, and Tolarian Academy's, time spirals, Serra's Avatars and what not...

I'm an avid magic guy(but not the past 5yrs though), I got about 10k cards, and there are a lot that are worth $, but not 45k grand worth, if anything the value of the cards are about 1/8th of what they say, except a handful aka Black Lotus

eta:to change Urza, to Serra...