Just recently, a shocking campus incident occurred in Dothan, Alabama, USA. A 77-year-old volunteer teacher reportedly got into a heated argument with a child under 10 over Pokémon trading cards, and was ultimately arrested by police and charged with harassment.
According to a statement released by Dothan Police Chief William E. Benny on the department’s official website, the incident occurred on August 31, 2026. That day, Dothan police’s school resource officer unit received a report and responded to the local Jerry Lee Faine Elementary School to handle a physical altercation between a student and a volunteer teacher.
Police said that 77-year-old volunteer teacher Oscar Truitt Jr. allegedly got into an argument with an elementary school student over Pokémon cards, and after reviewing the school’s surveillance footage, they found that Oscar Truitt Jr. had physically attacked the child multiple times. Police then immediately arrested him on harassment charges, and he was taken to Dothan City Jail. In the statement, Dothan police also emphasized that “ensuring the personal safety of students” is their top priority.
As of now, neither local police nor the school has released further details about the incident, leaving fans of Pokémon cards with no way to learn what caused such a heated conflict between the two parties, or whether the student involved was injured. What is certain, however, is that this is not the first crime related to Pokémon cards in recent years.
Given the massive trading market behind the Pokémon Trading Card Game, some of the rarer cards typically hold extremely high value. But precisely because of this, players have frequently seen various thefts, scams, and conflicts centered around these cards over the past few years. Not only that, but whenever the official releases a brand new expansion set, it almost always attracts large numbers of scalpers clearing out stock, and more and more retail card shops have begun using various methods to counteract this.
For example, some Japanese card shops have already begun implementing facial recognition technology, and some stores even require customers to pass a Pokémon trivia quiz before they can buy, in order to filter out proxy scalpers and true fans, thereby ensuring that card players who love Pokémon can get card packs first.
Source: KOCPC Chinese