Armed robbery a diversion for thief of valuable Pokémon cards – NBC4 Washington


A man apparently robbed a woman at gunpoint so her boyfriend would go to her aid, leaving their house ripe for burglary.

Someone put a gun in the woman’s face in a Tysons parking garage Wednesday morning, stole her cellphone and left, Fairfax County police said. But as the victim’s phone was stolen, she was talking to her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend heard what was going on and rushed out of their home to the parking garage to help his girlfriend.

That’s exactly what the suspect was counting on, Fairfax County police believe.

“He leaves, starts to proceed to her location, and about a short time after, he gets an activation – he has cameras inside his house – he gets an activation that someone is inside his home,” said Elizabeth Melendez of Fairfax County police Violent Crimes.

The boyfriend looked at his phone, saw the security video and recognized the person inside his house as one of his friends.

That friend was stealing thousands of dollars’ worth of special Pokémon cards tucked away inside of a safe, police said.

Police quickly arrested 36-year-old Mohammad Asif of California. He appeared to be headed to the airport before he was arrested with the stolen cards, police said.

The armed robbery on Westwood Drive in Tysons happened at 9:07 a.m. Wednesday, while the burglary was 18 minutes later in Fair Oaks, leading to suspicion Asif wasn’t acting alone.

“We still have a lot of good leads to follow up on, yes,” Melendez said.

Asif was charged with burglary, two counts of grand larceny, conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

No one has been charged with the robbery of the girlfriend, yet.

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