Wilmington video game store asks for help after robbery

January 11, 2026

Bryan Alonso,

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)– “It has made me sad, putting my employee into that spot”, said Austin Parker, the owner of Video Game Time store, after saying his store and employee was robbed on a Tuesday afternoon.

Parker, who didn’t have any security cameras, says his employee was working in the middle of the day when he was the subject of an armed robbery.

“An individual came in and he had a briefcase, which is normal, because people trade stuff to us all the time. He talked to him for a little bit, and then he came over to the last case to check out a game. Hayden went to grab the game, and then he got pepper sprayed. He fell over and stood back up, but the guy showed him that he had a gun in his waistband and told him to chill out. The suspect then zip tied him and put his face on the ground,” said Parker.

Located on Princess Street, Video Game Time is a place that has something for anybody who is into entertainment like video games, retro consoles, and Pokémon cards.

Parker says he started his business just a few years ago, having a passion for video games, but saw the potential in Pokémon cards after seeing the trend rise after COVID.

“I think it’s just a perfect storm that comes in batches. In 2020 it was hard to get cards, and we are starting to see that again with the 30th anniversary starting to come in,” said Parker.

Unfortunately, the value of Pokémon cards brought in an unsuspecting surprise. On January 6th, parker said his store was robbed. Parker claims the suspect robbed over 20,000 worth of trading cards, with his most expensive item being a set of Pokémon cards that come in a box that are worth roughly 2,200 dollars.

A few days after the robbery, Parker went to social media to tell the community about what happened, and almost immediately, a trading card store located in Fayetteville contacted parker about a number of cards they bought from three individuals.

The store, who wishes to remain anonymous, says they confirmed the items with Parker. Parker says the three individuals do not match the ID of the suspect who robbed them.

As of right now, the store in Fayetteville says they immediately pulled the cards from their inventory and are hoping to help out Parker.

“As long as the cards return to the original owner, that’s all that matter,” said one employee of the store.

As Parker hopes to get help from the community and the police, he says he is ready to bounce back from the situation.

“It’s just going to be how we pretty much started. We’re just going to be here every single day and grinding it out. We are going to be talking to everybody and will continue to do shows across the state. We will work as hard as we can to get back to where we were,” said Parker.

Parker asks the community to not only help out the store, but to also help out his employee get justice. He asks the community to be on the lookout for an individual with these characteristics.