Judge uses electronic tag on Pokémon card tracker. It's super effective!

Ohio man planted a device on a delivery van to follow scarce trading card stock and caught a year of probation

A 72-year-old Ohio man who planted a GPS tracker on a Pokémon card delivery van has been sentenced to a year of probation – including 90 days wearing a tracker of his own.

Kent Kubasta, of Medina, Ohio, attached a Spytec device to the woman's van. She discovered it while making a delivery to Walmart on June 18 and was described in court documents as "a carrier/vendor of Pokémon cards."

Kubasta initially pleaded not guilty to illegal use of a tracking device, but later waived his right to trial and pleaded no contest. Court records say he placed the device on the van to follow local card deliveries.

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For his crime, Kubasta was sentenced [PDF] to 12 months of community control – Ohio's term for probation – under basic supervision. He will be electronically monitored by GPS for the first 90 days.

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He was also ordered to have no contact with the woman, pay a $25 monthly supervision fee and a $500 fine, and cover court costs. His total bill comes to $905.50. Violating the terms could land Kubasta in jail for six months.

The court documents do not explain what Kubasta intended to do with the delivery information. The case nevertheless comes amid intense demand for Pokémon cards, with collectors regularly queuing outside shops when new stock arrives.

Pokémon began in 1996 with a pair of Nintendo Game Boy games about catching and battling monsters, and has since evolved into a multibillion-dollar media franchise spanning video games, trading cards, animated television and films, mobile apps, toys, and more.

The latest Trading Card Game expansion, released on September 16, contains more than 150 cards, including 30 rare Pikachu variants, with one included in every booster pack.

Randy Kendall, manager of Operation Fandom in Wooster, where the complaint was filed, told Fox 8 that Pokémon "is absolutely the hottest thing going" and the trading cards are among the store's best-selling products.

Some especially rare examples sell for six or even seven-figure sums, although most collectors manage to pursue them without putting the delivery driver under surveillance. ®