Board game designer duo charged in Gen Con theft of Magic: The Gathering cards worth $300,000

Two board game designers have been charged with allegedly stealing an approximate $300,000 worth of Magic: The Gathering cards from a vendor attending Gen Con’s annual tabletop convention.

The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office in Indianapolis, Indiana announced on September 5th that Thomas Dunbar and Andrew Giaume have been formally charged for the felony theft of MTG cards from Pastimes Comics & Games, a third-party vendor stationed on the convention’s massive show floor.

Dunbar and Giaume were captured on security footage taking a pallet jack from a staging area, loading it with boxes of Commander Masters booster packs and transporting the goods across the convention centre and into a parking lot. While it is not clear where the product travelled after being removed from Gen Con premises, New York State Police eventually recovered the stolen good and are currently returning them as evidence to Indiana Metropolital Police.

If found guilty, Dunbar and Giaume could face up to six years in prison and fines as large as $10,000, according to Indiana’s theft laws. The pair of designers were identified partially due to their registration as exhibitors at Gen Con to showcase their board game, Castle Assault, though Polygon reports that the pair changed their names to Scott Fischer and Ashriel Lockheart sometime after the alleged theft.

Polygon goes on to report that Dunbar and Giaume allegedly tried to enter a portion of the convention floor shared by Asmodee and Atomic Mass Games, where a contracted booth worker who believed they could be thieves, photographed the pair as they left. The worker later recognised Dunbar when police published their own photos of the alleged thieves.

Dicebreaker has reached out to the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and Pastime Games for more information. A court date for Dunbar and Giaume’s prosecution has not been set at this time.