Cop Gives Boy Pokemon Cards After Collection Was Stolen

Anyone who was a kid in the 90s or early 2000s knows how important Pokémon cards are. They were basically the currency of playgrounds and your worth depended on how many holographics you had, and if someone was out for one of your cards, you guarded it with your life. Unfortunately for 9-year-old Bryce, someone was out for his entire collection.

Another boy a few years older swiped Bryce’s binder full of cards right before his eyes.

According to Today, a group of boys came by Bryce’s home and asked if they could see his cards. When he put the binder down, one kid snatched it and fled. Bryce couldn’t believe it.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, did he steal my cards or am I hallucinating?'” Bryce told Today. “So I pinched myself and I noticed that I wasn’t daydreaming.”

However, all was not lost. Bryce told his mother, Angela Angelone, who called the police about the stolen binder.

Officer James Grotenrath responded to the call and just so happened to be an avid collector during his youth as well.

“I immediately went into the younger version of myself and imagined what would happen if someone else took my cards when I was young,” Grotenrath told Today. “I’d be very distraught if someone took my Pokémon cards. In a 9-year-old, that’s almost like the end of the world.”

Grotenrath, with the help of Angelone and a few neighborhood kids, tracked down the binder and were able to give it back to Bryce.

However, much to Bryce’s disappointment, some valuable cards were missing.

Later that night, Grotenrath was feeling down about how the situation turned out, and decided to find his old collection to give to Bryce.

He returned the next day with binders full of cards.

“I was shocked and then I said ‘Thank you’ a lot of times,” Bryce said. “And I went through all of them and I was really, really happy.”

Bryce also recognized how selfless the act was.

“He did a really hard thing to do that most people won’t do, because most people don’t just give away their cards,” said Bryce, who knows Grotenrath could easily have sold the valuable collection. “I was surprised and happy.”