Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 8

South Carolina Father Arrested After Leaving 6-Year-Old at Target for Pokémon Cards

Updated

Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 8

South Carolina Father Arrested After Leaving 6-Year-Old at Target for Pokémon Cards

Q: What specific Pokémon release was so valuable that it drove a father to abandon basic parental instincts and risk his child's life?

The release was the new Pokémon Trading Card Game expansion **“Mega Evolution — Delta Reign.”** That identification comes from the additional reporting tied to the Charleston arrest, which says the overnight crowd at the West Ashley Target had gathered for that set’s Friday on-sale release. Police statements in the original case description referred more generally to a “new Pokémon trading card set,” but the follow-up coverage names the product specifically. As for value, the cards themselves were not described as individually rare or uniquely high-priced at retail. Reports note booster packs started at about **$5**, suggesting the frenzy was driven less by sticker price than by scarcity, collector demand and resale pressure that often surround major Pokémon TCG launches. In other words, it appears to have been a high-demand new-set drop, not a single confirmed ultra-valuable card release.

3 articles · Updated · The Washington Post · Nov 8

Charleston police arrested 35-year-old John-Michael Dooley after witnesses reported his 6-year-old daughter asleep and unattended outside a Target store around 2:30 a.m.
Witnesses said Dooley gave the girl a pillow and blanket after 1 a.m. and left to go home, using her to hold his place in line for a newly released Pokémon card set.
Dooley returned to the West Ashley store and admitted during a police interview that he had left his daughter there to keep his spot, authorities said.
Police charged him with unlawful conduct toward a child; the girl was unharmed and placed in emergency protective custody.