AVON PARK, Fla. - Highlands County Sheriff’s deputies are searching for a comic book thief who stole thousands of dollars worth of comic books over Christmas weekend.
“They knew what they were getting. We believe that they’ve been here before [probably] several times too, to figure out pricing and stuff like that,” Brian Shelton said.
Shelton is the co-owner of IDC Comics Toys & Collectibles in Avon Park. He said the collectibles are hard to find and expensive.
“I thought it sucked. They said {the person} took all {of} his graded comics up there. I mean that’s a lot,” Jose Chavez, a customer, said.
The pricey comic books were lined up against the wall in plastic cases.
“What will (be) even worse {is} if it’s somebody we know real well, that would be the hard part, you know somebody….you trust them…than to do that to us,” Shelton said.
Shelton said the thief got away with $4,000 to $5,000 worth of comic books. The thief smashed the front door to break into the business.
The owners are putting together a list with serial numbers of the stolen comic books in order to share it on social media and with other comic book stores in order to make it more difficult for the thief to sell them.
“Yeah comic book collectors don’t like thieves and they will look for them,” Shelton said.
Anyone with information should call Heartland Crime Stoppers.
