Forest Lake, Duluth men charged in brazen $250,000 Pokémon store break-in

Mary Divine, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

Gotta catch ‘em all. That’s what police have done in the case of last year’s Pokémon card heist in Forest Lake.

Two men have been charged with third-degree burglary in connection with the theft of more than $250,000 in Pokémon cards from a Forest Lake gaming store on Feb. 10, 2022.

Matthew James Cuypers Jr., 40, of Duluth, and Dustin Anthony Wittern, 40, of Forest Lake, are accused of gaining entry to Punch-Out Gaming by breaking into the vacant shop next door and then smashing two large holes through the adjoining wall into the gaming store’s storage rooms.

Cuypers, who has an extensive criminal history, admitted stealing the Pokémon cards in a post-Miranda interview on an unrelated federal matter about a month after the burglary, according to the criminal complaint filed last week in Washington County District Court. He reported that he worked with Wittern, “who knew a buyer who had been looking at the cards,” the complaint states.

The men allegedly loaded the stolen cards into a Ford E-350 van. After “delivering the cards to the buyer, the men ditched the truck,” the complaint states.

Cuypers, wearing a mask, hoped to evade Punch-Out Gaming’s security cameras and motion detectors, but was caught on camera, said Eric Johnson, who has owned the store with his identical-twin brother Mike since 2014.

Mike Johnson discovered the theft around 9:30 a.m. Feb. 11, 2022, when he went to open for business. Security-camera footage puts the time of break-in at 1:39 a.m.

The men knew what they were doing, Eric Johnson said. They first broke into the defunct Trump Shop, which sold Donald Trump-themed merchandise, then knew exactly where to punch through the wall — in two separate spots — to get into the areas where the Pokémon merchandise was stored.

“They were pretty precise on where they went through, which leads us to believe that they had scouted the place out,” he said.

Suspect left saliva

Online sleuths helped the Johnson brothers identify Cuypers and Wittern shortly after the break-in, but police had to wait until DNA results confirmed their suspicions before charging them, Eric Johnson said. Cuypers was tracked down using DNA from his saliva left at the scene, he said.

When Cuypers crawled into the first storage area, he looked up and saw a monitor showing the views of the store’s security cameras, Eric Johnson said. “He looked a little closer and saw he was on one, so he turned around and tried to find something to cover up the camera,” he said.

Wearing gloves and a nylon mask, Cuypers can be seen peering into the frame as he works to cover the camera. Fortunately, he took off a glove to remove some tape and tore off a piece with his teeth, Johnson said. Hence, the saliva.

“He should have used scissors,” Johnson said.

The Pokémon cards have not been recovered, but the store’s insurance company has covered the loss, he said.

The shop is the largest seller of Pokémon products in the Midwest, Eric Johnson said, and the brothers are expanding into the space next door — the space that the men used to gain entry to the storage room.

“We’re just glad they finally charged the guys,” Johnson said. “No Team Rocket team members were involved.”

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