ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Winona man was charged with stealing boxes of collectible cards from a southeast Rochester shop in a brazen ploy. Joshua Allan Mueller, 44, was caught red-handed on security video taking cartons containing $3,400 worth of cards, police said. This was Tuesday about 11 p.m. Mueller was charged with felony theft. A clerk gave this description of the theft:
> A man impersonating a vendor entered the store with a cart loaded presumably with cartons of new trading cards for stocking.
> He went to a backroom.
> He cut open the bottom of some of the store’s own trading card cartons.
> He filled his own cartons with the store’s cards and put the store’s now-emptied boxes back on a shelf.
> He exited the front door with the stolen cards.
The clerk intercepted the man’s cart and found hundreds of the shop’s own sports trading cards. Police were called. In court Mueller was told to return for a further hearing at the end of he month.
Mueller. Trading card addict? An overzealous trader?