Gen Con Suspects Charged, Affadavit Fills in Story
Thomas Dunbar and Pearson Giaume have been formally charged with felony theft of the pallet of Magic: the Gathering cards taking from Gen Con during pre-con setup. A pre-trial conference will be held on November 9, and the trial itself will be November 29.
A probable cause affadavit has filled in and corrected many details about the investigation. The theft actually took place on August 1, not August 2 as previously reported. The stolen merchandise, originally said to be worth $300,000, is described as being worth $195,652.
The affadavit is not available online, but several reports allow a full timeline to be pieced together.
Polygon reports that Dunbar and Giaume were not exactly subtle about their attempts to find something removable:
Somewhere before Dunbar and Giaume left Indiana for New York, the two allegedly attempted to enter the area at Gen Con shared by Asmodee and Atomic Mass Games, which make Marvel and Star Wars tabletop games, among others. A person contracted to work that booth believed the pair was trying to break in, and snapped a photo before they left. When police went public with the photo, that contractor recognized Dunbar.
WIBC has the full details of the heist:
When viewing security camera footage, detectives saw two men acquire a pallet jack, steal a pallet of “Magic: The Gathering” cards, and move them to an area behind a black curtain. The theft happened before the convention started, while vendors were setting up displays.
Further video footage shows the men pulling the loaded pallet into the State Parking Garage around 4 p.m. on Aug. 1.
The men are seen six minutes later leaving the parking garage with an empty cart. Later, they are shown carrying empty cardboard boxes near the skywalk entrance of the garage.
Officers later saw footage of the men entering and leaving the parking garage in a red 2023 Nissan Murano rental car with a New York license plate.
Stills taken from security cameras show the red Nissan driving through Plainfield, Indiana, with what appeared to be cardboard boxes in the back seat.
The police were called in on August 2. Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Star reports that Dunbar and Giaume did make one attempt to cover their tracks:
Gen Con officials told police that Dunbar and Giaume altered their registration information online, changing their names to "Scott Fischer" and "Ashriel Lockheart" after their convention badges were issued.
By August 7, the police had their first tip that Dunbar and Giaume were the people in the surveillance footage. On August 8, per the Star:
[D]etectives received an unsolicited call from an attorney in New York saying they were representing "an unnamed client in possession of the stolen gaming cards belonging to Pastimes, Inc."
The attorney said his client was coerced into purchasing a pallet of merchandise by someone calling themselves "Jeff" at a price of $4,000, the affidavit states. They were unaware of the merchandise's value or origin until after seeing a story about the theft online.
With help from New York State Police, troopers arrived at the attorney's office and collected 115 boxes and packages containing "Magic: the Gathering" and "Dungeon & Dragons" gaming cards and books investigators said were taken from the Indiana Convention Center.
Detectives were also able to link Dunbar and Giaume with their rental car, their hotel room in Indianapolis, and, after learning about their role in making the game Castle Assault, with their addresses in New York.
In Brief
Chambanacon 52 (Normal, Illinois, November 24-26) will be the last Chambanacon, titled “The Final Fannish Family Reunion”.
Hampton Comicon (Hampton, Virginia), originally scheduled for October 7, has been postponed to 2024 due to a scheduling conflict.
Corflu 41 (Las Vegas, February 29-March 3) is looking for bids for Corflu 42. There is currently one known bid, for an unspecified location in the UK.
DerpyCon 2023 (New Brunswick, New Jersey, October 27-29) has added Kyle McCarley and Adam Gaffen as guests.
Trek Long Island (Hauppage, New York, May 31-June 2) has added Yetide Badaki and Orville Cummings as guests.
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Coda
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