On Wednesday, two men were charged for the August 1st Gen Con theft where nearly $US300,000 worth of product was stolen from Pastimes, during vendor load in before the convention occurred. Andrew “Pearson” Giuame and Thomas “TJ” Dunbar were officially charged with a Class 5 Felony for their alleged involvement in the theft by the Indianapolis Police.
“During the course of the investigation, the stolen merchandise was located and recovered as evidence. The filing of charges today ensures that there are criminal consequences for this conduct,” Prosecutor Ryan Mears stated in a press release email sent to io9.
The affidavit for the case provided to io9 states that the cards were stolen from the show floor itself by two men, one of whom acquired a pallet jack to take the merchandise away. The pallet was taken to another area of the show floor and hidden behind a curtain—which appear to be the kind that vendors set up to be barriers between booths—which was “quite a distance from the original area.” Later in the day the two men are seen with a red hand cart taking the unwrapped boxes through the skywalk to the attached garage.
After leaving the garage to return the handcart, the men returned to the garage and five minutes later, a red Nissan Murano with New York license plates left the garage. Included in the affidavit is a still from a Raceway security camera that shows boxes stacked in the back of the Murano. They quickly found that the car was a rental, which had been signed over to Dunbar earlier that day.
The affidavit confirms that one of the men is seen wearing a Castle Assault tee shirt—a game that Dunbar and Guiame designed in 2015. Additionally, neither Dunbar or Giuame were in attendance as vendors—sometime during Gen Con, both Dunbar and Giaume changed their names in the Gen Con registrations system; Dunbar became “Scott Fischer” and Giaume changed his to “Ashriel Lockheart.”
Around 11:30 am on August 1, a contractor employed by Asmodee/Atomic Mass Games saw a man with red hair attempt to enter the Gen Con Headquarters for the company. The contractor had a conversation with the man, and after he left, snapped a picture. The contractor believes this man was attempting “to break into the Asmodee-Atomic Mass Games booth.”
Another clue that led to the arrests came on August 8, when an attorney called the detective in charge of the case. He stated that he represented “an unnamed client who was in possession of the stolen gaming cards.” The attorney stated that “his client was coerced into purchasing a pallet of merchandise by an individual named ‘Jeff’ for $US4000,” and instructed the attorney to reach out to the detective after he learned about the theft online.
The recovered product was confirmed to be the Magic: The Gathering cards that were stolen from Pastimes at Gen Con. The total retail value of the product is just under $200,000. Both Dunbar and Giaume have been charged with the theft.