(KRON) -- A Washington state man was arrested in San Mateo County after police said they recovered a rare anime trading card allegedly stolen in a $30,000 fraud scheme that began earlier this year.
The San Mateo Police Department responded at 10:56 a.m. on Sunday to a call regarding a stolen trading card at the San Mateo Event Center.
A large trading card convention was taking place at the time, police said. Arriving at the scene, officers met with event security and a vendor. The vendor, according to police, told security that a man attempted to sell him a trading card.
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The vendor, viewing the card, realized he was familiar with it and had learned the card was stolen via a Facebook group post. The vendor held onto the card while security detained the suspect.
San Mateo PD were able to contact the person the card was stolen from. They learned that the suspect had tried to purchase the high-value card from him in Garden Grove back in July.
The sale price at the time was $30,000. After exchanging what the victim believed to be $30,000 in cash, the suspect took off with the card. The victim realized they'd been defrauded, only collecting a few hundred dollars.
The victim posted about the incident in a Facebook group to alert other trading card enthusiasts about what happened. He also filed a police report in Garden Grove.
The suspect, identified as 44-year-old Constantin Nitescu of Washington, lied about his identity. police said. Further investigation revealed he'd tried to sell the card at least twice before, once in Las Vegas and once at a card show in Santa Clara County.
He was unsuccessful on both occasions and police were called. However, the suspect fled before they arrived. Nitescu, according to police, is currently under investigation for a similar crime in Marina, California.
Police said that in addition to this arrest, he currently has three active arrest warrants. The stolen card was recovered and Nitescu was transported and booked into the San Mateo County Jail for grand theft, possession of stolen property, theft under false pretenses, providing false identification to law enforcement, and warrants.
