Two men are accused in a scheme to steal trading cards worth an estimated $50,000, according to court records. Vancouver police identified a third suspect, but that man was previously released pending further investigation.
Jace Dakota Koch, 26, of Vancouver appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree robbery. Judge Christine Hayes set his bail at $5,000. He will be arraigned April 16, court records show.
An alleged co-conspirator, Michael Jude Fischer, 31, appeared in court in February and is charged with first-degree possession of stolen property and first-degree trafficking in stolen property, as well as possession of stolen mail and third-degree theft in connection with another investigation, court records show.
Police arrested Fischer on Feb. 10 after he and another man tried to sell stolen Pokemon and sports cards at Columbia Sports Cards, 15644 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd. A search of the vehicle that Fischer was driving yielded several backpacks and boxes of the collectible cards, as well as replica handguns, according to court records.
Shahalie Freeman, the owner of the cards, had called area stores to warn them that Fischer may try to sell them. Her description of the stolen cards matched the cards that police recovered, court records state.
Investigators searched Fischer’s phone and said they found text messages between him and Freeman. She had asked Fischer the day before for help with selling the cards. Freeman subsequently texted Fischer about him stealing the cards, according to court records.
In one text message to another number, Fischer stated “I hit a lick on like 50+k worth of cards. Going thru them rn,” court records state. (Hit a lick is slang for making quick money.)
Investigators also found texts between Fischer and the man who accompanied him to the card shop, as well as Koch. In the messages among the three, they devised a plan to rob Freeman of her cards and sell them at a convention in Portland, according to court records.
Freeman told police she and Fischer initially tried to sell the cards at the convention center in Portland, but no one was buying them. He told her he knew some places in Vancouver where they could sell them. He arranged to drive her to the card shops, while tipping off Koch and the other man to meet at a parking lot to rob her, court records state.
Their plan was foiled multiple times throughout the day, however. Fischer eventually ditched Freeman at a bar in Portland and stole the cards, which he described as being in four backpacks and a box. Then, he arranged to sell them the next day, according to court records.
Koch wasn’t arrested until April 3, when Vancouver police were called to a disturbance at an apartment in the 5200 block of Northeast 121st Avenue. There, they contacted Koch and his former girlfriend, court records state.
The woman reportedly told police that Koch told her he was on the run due to a robbery charge and planned to flee to Texas. She told police that in early February, Koch, Fischer and a third man were in her apartment sorting numerous bags of Pokemon and sports cards.
