3 break-ins in 3 weeks: SE Portland comic book shop loses thousands to thieves

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The owner of a comic book store in southeast Portland is frustrated after the third break-in in three weeks.

John Thomas has owned Disk Heroes for 10 years, selling vintage comic books and an extensive variety of ‘Magic the Gathering’ cards, but the last three weeks have been the most difficult.

January 16 marked the start of a wave of break-ins, in which he lost $10,000 worth of product.

“They threw a blue anvil - it’s a tool, through the bottom door window and crawled through the door,” Thomas said. “They came behind the counter and cleared off all the books on this rack.”

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Nine days later, it happened again. This time, he caught the thieves on camera. Surveillance video shows a sedan parked and two people in frame.

Thomas said they used a crowbar to open the back door and steal more books. They stepped on the glass display cases and shattered them.

Just under than a week later, his store was hit for a third time. Video shows three people stealing more books, sealed product and a whole case of statues.

“Each one of them had a tub and each one to a specific spot in the shop and started dumping product into the tubs,” Thomas said.

Getting away with a total of over $30,000, including a comic book worth $5,000.

Thomas is now working harder to keep his business safe, taking matters into his own hands.

“I will probably be sleeping in here,” he said.

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Thomas said that if his store gets hit a fourth time this, could put them out of business

“I call it semi-retired - I get to do what I love every day of the week and enjoy it,” says Thomas. “I don’t get rich doing this. I do it because I love it.”

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