Mohammad Asif

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A California man who was arrested in Virginia after a brazen theft of rare Pokémon cards has copped to the crime, according to officials.

Mohammad Asif, 36, pleaded guilty this week to two counts of grand larceny in connection with a July heist in Fairfax County when he robbed a woman at gunpoint and made off with the cards, officials said.

It all started around 9:07 a.m. on July 23, when a woman was walking in the garage on Westwood Center Drive and was approached by a masked suspect holding a rifle.

The suspect grabbed her and stole her phone, police said. She managed to escape, and the gunman fled before officers arrived.

Then, things got weirder.

While the woman’s boyfriend was on scene assisting her, he got an alert from his home security system at around 9:25 a.m. that morning. 

He pulled up the feed and saw someone breaking into his house on Plateau Drive in Fair Oaks, police said.

Officers rushed to the home and confirmed it had been burglarized. The thief was gone, but high-value Pokémon cards were missing.

The cards were valued at an estimated $50,000.

Detectives quickly identified Asif as the burglary suspect and took him into custody with help from the Fugitive Tracking and Apprehension Unit. 

He is scheduled to be sentenced in March 2026.