- And now he’s facing up to 90 years in jail.
Various trading cards are apparently the hottest and trendiest targets for theft. At least you’d think that based on how many people are doing it around the country.
That said, trading cards are still a bit of an odd article to steal. So, the thefts and burglaries are often a bit out in the left field as well.
Take this case from Florida, for instance. Palm Beach resident Keith Wallis was recently arrested for organizing a long-running retail theft scheme.
Specifically, Wallis was targeting sports trading cards. The authorities say that over several months, his crimes cost various stores thousands of dollars in losses. Meanwhile, he earned four times as much by selling the cards.
How did he pull off such a stunt, you asked?
Wallis did it with the help of taco seasoning. He would grab as many seasoning packets as he did card packs and scan the spices instead of cards.
Eventually, his luck ran out. Wallis has now been arrested and charged with a long list of crimes, including organized theft and money laundering.
That’s a Taco-seasoned Meatball
According to a statement from the Florida Attorney General’s office, Wallis started his crime spree in July 2025. He allegedly primarily targeted Target stores.
Well, they do have a big target painted on them, so we suppose it makes sense.
Wallis certainly kept busy. Between July 2025 and February 2026, Wallis reportedly committed 75 thefts at multiple Target locations.
He didn’t stick to just one area, either. Wallis allegedly stole cards from stores all over the Sunshine State.
“Detectives learned that Wallis traveled throughout Florida, from Orlando to Homestead and along both coasts,” Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) said in a statement.
The PBSO also said that, in addition to Target, Wallis also targeted Walmart stores. However, according to the attorney general’s office, the investigation is ongoing, but Wallis is believed to have also stolen from Walmart and Publix stores.
Despite changing stores, Wallis’ modus operandi was always the same. He would enter the store and grab a number of unopened sports trading card boxes.
He would then move over to the grocery section and pick an equal number of 99-cent taco seasoning packets. Then it was time to check out.
Going through self-checkout, Wallis would scan the seasoning packet’s bar code instead of the trading cards. Surveillance camera footage shows that he would position the taco seasoning so that, to any store staff, it seemed like he was scanning the cards.
Finally, he’d pay a few bucks and walk out. He may not be quite the criminal mastermind you expected, but his scheme worked.
Over his crime spree, Wallis allegedly stole more than $10,000 worth of merchandise from Target alone. He would sell the cards on eBay, earning nearly $40,000 in illicit revenue, the attorney general’s office said.
‘Controlled Purchases’
Wallis may have thought nobody would notice his little trick at the self-checkout. But somebody did.
In November 2025, a Target store in Lake Park reported two incidents of retail theft to the PBSO. On November 8 and November 14, a person reportedly stole multiple boxes of sports trading cards.
“Our detectives adopted the case as an organized retail theft investigation. Keith Ryan Wallis … was identified as the suspect,” the PBSO said.
“The investigation determined that he committed approximately 39 thefts at Target stores statewide since July 2025, totaling over $5,000 in losses,” the sheriff’s office added, reflecting information known at that time.
The PBSO’s money laundering unit started looking into Wallis. By making “controlled purchases” of the cards Wallis was selling on eBay, they confirmed that their payments were going to Wallis’ personal bank account.
“On February 23, 2026, with assistance from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, detectives executed a residential search warrant and arrested Wallis without incident in Broward County,” the PBSO said.
According to the attorney general’s office, Wallis is facing charges of two counts of felony organized retail theft, three counts of felony dealing in stolen property, and one count of felony money laundering.
And that’s without accounting for the possible further charges for his thefts at Walmart and Publix. If found guilty, Wallis is reportedly facing up to 90 years in jail.
Easy to Steal, Easy to Sell
But why trading cards? Wallis and many other criminals are attracted to them because they’re valuable and very difficult to track.
In the aftermath of the COVID pandemic, the prices for all kinds of trading cards — from Pokémon to sports — skyrocketed to ridiculous heights. Not only are gamers and collectors interested in rare cards, but people are also buying them as investments for hundreds to thousands of dollars.
It’s also nearly impossible to track whether any given card was acquired through theft. Trading cards have no serial numbers or any other identifying information. It’s anyone’s guess whether somebody is selling off their old card collection or cards they stole from somewhere.
Consequently, we’ve seen increasingly brazen card thefts. Just take a look at these three outrageous Pokemon card burglaries from the past few months.