Amarillo Card Shop Robbed, Police Recover $30K in Stolen Cards

One of the biggest booming markets in the United States right now is sports cards and Pokemon cards. When you go into places like Walmart and Target around Amarillo, it's almost impossible to find stock of any of the bigger releases in there when it comes to buying boxes to rip open.

People line up early in the morning on the days those stores receive their restocks, and they go as fast as they are put on the shelves—if not faster. Furthermore, Amarillo doesn't have a whole lot of hobby shops to purchase them at. I would know, I'm a huge collector myself.

Get our free mobile app

Card Shop In Amarillo Robbed

On August 15, 2025, one of the card shops in Amarillo was robbed and taken for thousands of dollars worth of cards. $40,000 worth of sports cards and Pokemon cards were taken from Mike's Sports Cards. The suspect forced entry through the glass front door.

With how easily those cards are sold these days, it would've been easy for the suspect to get rid of them in a hurry, and it appears they were able to unload some of them. It looks like they may have tried to move them at a pawn shop of sorts.

Suspect Captured Same Day

Police were able to review surveillance and identify not only the suspect, but the vehicle they were in. 38-year-old Daniel Zavala's vehicle was spotted at a "cash for gold" business, according to the Amarillo Police Department's press release.

Some patrol officers ended up stopping the vehicle with Zavala inside, and found it to have a stolen license plate that had been linked to a completely separate burglary at a car dealership in Amarillo.

Search Warrants Turn Up Stolen Cards & More

Detectives obtained two separate search warrants, one for his vehicle and another for the room he had at the Camelot Hotel. Between the two, detectives recovered around $30,000 in stolen property, and most of the sports cards were there.

Police also uncovered several more stolen license plates along with plans for further heists. They were also able to link Zavala to a similar robbery that occurred in Lubbock back in July.