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SOUTH JORDAN — Police arrested a man Wednesday who they believe has been stealing trading cards from hobby stores from Bountiful to South Jordan over the past several months.
Julian Mingura, 37, was booked into the Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of three counts of burglary and theft by receiving stolen property.
About 3:50 a.m. Monday, police say someone broke into Mythos Games, 681 W. South Jordan Parkway, by shooting a BB gun at the glass front door.
"Surveillance video inside of the store shows the male going to the front counter and begin to place trading cards in a trash (can) which (he) obtained while in the store," according to a police booking affidavit. "The male gathers the cards and then loads them into the back passenger seat of the Mercedes and leaves the scene."
The next day, store employees contacted police to report that based on the suspect description and the car he was driving, they believed Mingura — who was also a suspect in a burglary in February at Crave Collectables, 9160 S. 300 West — was responsible for their burglary, the affidavit states.
"The victim stated the suspect in the Sandy case used a black Mercedes to drive to the store, broke the front glass door and then stole the trading cards and sold them on eBay," according to the arrest report.
In that Crave Collectables case, the business owners stated they "were missing approximately 70 different packages from throughout the store. Some of the packages were small unopened baseball and basketball cards; other packages were individually packaged Pokémon cards. (The owners) estimated the total dollar amount of missing merchandise was $10,000," according to a search warrant served by Sandy police.
One of the owners of the Sandy store later found some of his stolen merchandise being sold on eBay, according to police. He purchased some of his cards back and learned the seller was a man in West Valley City. The owner told police that based on his research, he believed Mingura was responsible.
"(He) said this same suspect is responsible for burglaries from DC Cards in Bountiful and Galaxy of Games in West Jordan," the warrant states.
On Wednesday, South Jordan police located Minguara and questioned him. He allegedly confessed to stealing trading cards in South Jordan, West Jordan, Bountiful and Sandy, according to the affidavit.
"(The officer) asked Julian what he would do with the trading cards. Julian stated he would sell them on eBay to earn extra money," the affidavit states.
Police were able to recover some of the missing trading cards, and a BB gun and ski mask suspected of being used during the burglaries.
According to court records, Mingura has a lengthy history of theft and drug-related charges.
