A Pokemon TCG store that was the victim of an armed robbery is now changing its name following Nintendo apparently getting in contact.
Last month The Poke Court – a Pokemon Card store in Manhattan, New York – was robbed at gunpoint during its very first community evening event. An employee told ABC7 Eyewitness News that in the three-minutes that the robbery took place, the suspects had stolen over $100,000 worth of merchandise from the store. As the Pokemon TCG craze has had a resurgence over the last few years, with cards selling for huge amounts of money, robberies of stores have become more common, with multiple reportedly happening over all corners of the US in 2026 alone.
Unfortunately, the store's string of bad luck has continued, as it has now had to rebrand itself almost exactly a month later. It now goes by The Trainer Court, with the Poke Ball removed from its logo.
A post on the store's website (via TheGamer) says: "First, thank you to everyone for the insane support we've seen, both near and far, in the less than two years we've been open." The team then explains, "The short story is that Nintendo reached out to us with concerns about our name and logo. As we also have some new and exciting things planned for this year, we've decided to take this opportunity to evolve!"
While The Trainer Court staff don't mention the robbery in this post, it feels somewhat likely that the incident put the store on Nintendo's radar, given how the company contacted them so soon after the incident. However, the team seems thankfully unphased by with what it's been through, with the post mentioning plans for more community events, tournaments, and even something special for Pokemon Day later this month.
