A California man pleaded guilty Monday in a case in which he was accused of breaking into his friend’s Fairfax County, Virginia, home and stealing more than $50,000 worth of rare Pokémon cards.
Mohammad Asif was caught on home surveillance camera in July breaking into a Fair Oaks home where his friend and friend’s girlfriend live, prosecutors said. Asif allegedly stole the rare Pokémon cards and a designer bag.
Minutes before the burglary, the girlfriend was held up with a rifle outside of her workplace in Tysons, police said.
Someone pointed a gun at the woman in a parking garage, took her cellphone and left as 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, leaving no one at home.
The boyfriend looked at security video on his phone and recognized the person inside his house as one of his friends.
Evidence showed Asif’s cellphone pinged in both locations, police told News4, and investigators believe Asif acted alone.
Asif pleaded guilty in Fairfax County Circuit Court to two counts of grand larceny as part of a plea agreement. A sentencing hearing was schedule for March.
The commonwealth’s attorney has not told News4 whether it intends to pursue additional charges related to the gun allegations.
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