Pair charged with theft of $650 in Pokemon cards from Plainfield game shop

Two people have been charged with the theft of about $650 in Pokemon cards from Wandering Dragon Game and Puzzle Shoppe in downtown Plainfield.

Kelsie Zabel, 31, of Sugar Grove, was arrested on April 3, and booked into the Will County jail. Zabel’s co-defendant, Robert Remy, 33, of Earlville, remains at large.

The investigation of the theft began Feb. 22, when officers received a report of two separate retail thefts from Wandering Dragon Game and Puzzle Shoppe, 15032 S. Des Plaines St., during which about $650 worth of Pokemon cards were stolen, according to a statement from the Plainfield Police Department.

The thefts occurred on Jan. 31 and Feb. 21, and both incidents were captured on video surveillance, police said. The suspects had left names and email addresses with the store for an email mailing list.

An investigation by Plainfield police detectives led them to corroborate the suspects’ identities as Remy and Zabel based on the information they left with the store and a credit card used by one of them to make a purchase, police said.

“The investigation revealed that [Remy] and [Zabel] worked together to complete the thefts and used a method where one of them distracted an employee with a ruse while the other concealed merchandise in their clothing,” police said.

Both suspects were interviewed by detectives and allegedly admitted to stealing from the store, albeit a much lesser value of items, police said.

Will County Judge Ben Braun signed a warrant for the arrest of Zabel and Remy on felony charges of retail theft. Both warrants carried a bond of $100,000.

A criminal complaint said Remy had stolen playing cards from Wandering Dragon Game Shoppe after he was previously convicted of aggravated robbery and burglary in Kane County.