As everyone knows, GenCon was two weekends ago, and other than the section that was partitioned off for Magic needing a little more space for open gaming and trading, the event was well-organized and well-run.

However, there was also a darker side of GenCon. At last count, there were at least fifty reports filed to local police about missing bags or decks being stolen, with an estimated value around $80,000. Whether the $80,000 figure is correct or not is not as important as the fact that we had about fifty reports of stolen cards.

There has always been theft in the gaming community, but by and large, it was theft of opportunity by the thief or neglect on the part of the owner. This weekend was different. There was organization to the theft that was occurring this weekend, and people had to have been working in teams to pull off what transpired.

I have taken the time to talk with a few people about how this team was most likely organized, and it seems like it would be pretty basic. I would like to preface this explanation of how the team of thieves was likely organized and how they could carry out this kind of activity not to encourage it, but rather to shed some light on the activity so you can understand how it happens and how to defend yourself against it.

How It Works

There would be between four and eight individuals working for the team. They would be looking for the juiciest targets, such as Vintage and Legacy decks or floor-traders’ bags, or easy opportunities, such as unattended bags or distracted owners.

Once a target is spotted, it could go in two different directions. If a diversion is needed, one person on the team could supply that while the a second makes the grab. From this point, the second person would have a very small window to hand the merchandise to a third individual, most likely still within the card hall. This third person would then meet the fourth and last person outside the convention center to get rid of any evidence that ties it to a specific person, such as identification within the bag, the bag itself, and any other unique properties about the merchandise that could tie it back to another person. This fourth person would then take the merchandise to where all of the stolen items are being kept, most likely a car or hotel room, go back to where he was waiting before, and continue to wait for the next drop-off.

The key to this sort of operation is the handoffs. The team members who are within the hall only have the merchandise for minutes, if not seconds, and once the bag makes it to the last team member, the chance of it ever being seen again is very small. Even if you can identify the person who made the initial grab, once it is out of that person’s hands, the only way you would find the next person in the line is to see the handoff happen.

Now, I admit, my theory is really just that: a theory. There is evidence that this is most likely how it worked. Theft was a lot more rampant during the morning and early afternoon than in the evenings, and specific events were being targeted. I heard that there were six decks stolen during one round of Legacy Champs, and both the first- and second-place finishers of that event had their decks swiped. This is a pretty clear indicator that there was some sort of organization and planning to what was happening.

The local police did question at least one individual they had on camera taking a bag in the convention hall; however, once they began questioning him, he no longer had the bag in his possession, pointing toward the theory that at least one handoff had taken place.

An organized team of thieves would really only need to be minimally competent to pull this off on the unsuspecting Magic community at GenCon. We just haven’t been exposed to this sort of activity before in such force, so we don’t naturally take the necessary precautions to defend against it.

With the same people I talked to about how this most likely transpired, we also discussed ways to defend against it:

1. Only carry on your person what you need and can keep track of very easily. Want to trade? Only bring one binder to trade out of. Want to play? Only bring the deck you will need for the event. This cuts down on you not noticing something is missing until later and you having to split your attention between your deck and you backpack and your binder of cards.

2. Stay with your friends. If you have multiple people in your group all watching everyone’s stuff, it will be much harder for any of it to go missing.

3. If someone is acting or looks suspicious, they very well may be. That doesn’t mean you should jump up and tell everyone you have a hunch that a certain person is a thief, but there is nothing wrong with collecting your things and going elsewhere, or alerting security or the Tournament Organizer to the person’s peculiar behavior.

There were some more creative ideas as well, but far less practical, such as planting unattended bags with ink bombs, similar to what banks use, or GPS systems so we can track where the bags go, but that all seems more involved when there are much easier solutions that you can manage yourself.

The most important thing to realize is that theft will continue to get bigger in Magic the more valuable the cards become, so I do not expect that this was an isolated incident, and in fact may create copycats. Be ready for it, be prepared, and knowing that it is out there is half the battle.

Happy grinding!

JR Wade

@THEJRRR on Twitter

JohnRobertWade at gmail dot com

With this being such a somber topic, I would like to say that I did have a lot of fun at GenCon, and I feel that the best way to convey it is with an old-fashioned props-and-slops section.

PROPS

Tom LaPille – He organized my room for GenCon and provided great company all weekend.

Jake Meiser, Bryan Garber, and Michael Augustine – For organizing a Vs. System 2v2 and allowing me to draft with them.

Mark Sun – For being the biggest baller out there and cracking your prize packs from Legacy Champs Top 8.

Medina – All the usual reasons.

Fogo de Chao – You know what you did. ;)

Eric Klug – Eric was assigned a special commission by Trick Jarrett that he finished and presented to me at GenCon that was just unbelievable. I won’t spoil it for you, but it was on Inside the Deck, and there was a step-by-step guide up about it last week as well. Go check them out!

Trick Jarrett – I was able to finally meet Trick after many months of podcasting with him and writing for him, and he is just as awesome of a guy as you think he would be. He was great enough to organize a writers’ dinner for all of the GatheringMagic content-providers, and only whined a little bit when I smashed his beloved Kiki-Jiki deck in Commander.

Ryan Bushard – For letting me participate in his Case to Completion project. This thing is going to be epic.

GenCon organizers and volunteers – Without you all, we wouldn’t have the best four days in gaming.

SLOPS

Medina – All the usual reasons.

Thieves – For jacking people’s bags and making our community worse.