When I was six years old I opened up a pack of Pokémon cards in the middle of Woolworth's. These weren't mine to open, to be clear. I just grabbed a shiny pack from off the shelf and tore into it, desperate to see what cards waited for me inside.
My parents paid for the after this - they didn't have much choice - but I got a massive bollocking on the way home. I almost immediately realised what I had done was seriously not okay, and I felt awful. Needless to say, it never happened again.
I leaned this lesson at the tender age of six. But there are currently grown-ass adults walking into stores and ripping open packs of Pokémon cards in an attempt to find the rarest ones and sell them on at an inflated price. I was a child. These people are just a bunch of massive see you next Tuesdays, if you catch my drift.
Over on Reddit, myorm shared a picture of their local Walmart with the caption "finally found Pokémon cards". As you can see above, the near-empty shelf is peppered with just a few loose energy and trainer cards. It's clear the full packs were torn open, with any cards of value taken away.
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While some of the commenters believe this could have been the work of greedy kids, others have pointed out its far more likely to be scalpers. We've seen Pokémon card resellers sink to some pretty gross depths so far this year. You may remember numerous stampedes of adults storming Walmarts to obtain rare packs, or the warm-hearted chums of humanity who camped outside McDonald's to get the Pokémon Happy Meal promotions before any actual children could get near them.
Given this, it's not a stretch to assume scalpers would sneakily tear into packs, is it? Especially given some of the incredible stories former Walmart employees shared in response to the above picture. It turns out people steal pretty substantial amounts from Walmart quite a lot.
"I work at Walmart, and I heard bout these guys that came into the store, headed for the toy aisle," wrote one user. "Let's just say when they left each of them were rolling each just nonchalantly riding their own hoverboard right out the door in front of all the cashiers and loss prevention. Nobody even questioned as to why or how these guys did it till they found the empty boxes in the back behind some shelves."
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"I've watched videos of people literally walking out with carts of full of TVs and consoles on Black Friday," added another. "Could have been staged but there's also a known scam for it so- haha. Pokémon cards wouldn't be a challenge for those people."
Featured Image Credit: Nintendo/cg_grassi via Instagram