Millions of dollars in allegedly stolen comic books, trading cards and guns recovered in North County

Rare comic books, more than $100,000 in cash and a small arsenal of guns were seized during a monthslong investigation into a string of storage unit burglaries in North County, sheriff’s officials said Wednesday.

Detectives said that the seizures occurred after the Vista Sheriff’s Station began a fraud investigation in connection to reports of individuals using stolen personal information to lease storage units in the area.

According to Sgt. Adam Milligan, the storage units were allegedly used to house rare collectible items stolen from other storage units — five in Valley Center, six in Escondido and two in Oceanside.

Between Oct. 28 and Nov. 13, investigators served three search warrants connected to this investigation, including at a home on West Los Angeles Drive near North Santa Fe Avenue, officials said.

During the searches, investigators seized 19 firearms, $100,000 cash and millions of dollars in comic books, cards and collectibles.

In photos provided by the Sheriff’s Office, just one of the comic books alone — an “All-Star Comics No. 8” from DC Comics released on Dec. 10, 1941 — was marked with a starting price of $10,000. The guns recovered ranged from handguns to rifles to shotguns.

A graded-Black Lotus Magic the Gathering trading card also appears to have been seized during searches, according to one of the photos provided by sheriff’s officials. Cards of the same name, depending on the year it was printed and its quality, have sold for between tens of thousands of dollars to as high as $3 million to an anonymous buyer in a 2024 auction.

A few Michael Jordan basketball cards and a handful of Marvel and DC comic books appear to have been found in the alleged thieves’ possession, as well.

“It’s definitely a very big seizure focusing on sports memorabilia, sports cards and comic books,” Milligan said.

It was not immediately clear who the victims of the reported burglaries were, and the overall financial value of all the stolen items — based on authenticity and market volatility — was still under investigation, Milligan said. Still, investigators put the likely value at millions of dollars.

The two suspects — a 43-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman — were arrested Nov. 4 on suspicion of multiple allegations, including burglary, fraud, grand theft and conspiracy.

No other details were immediately available Wednesday.