Taken to the cleaners

Unbelievably, just a month and a half after the Wow Cool | Alternative Comics shop was burglarized we have been hit again by what strongly appears to be the same thief or thieves. The method of entry and pattern of theft are very similar to what occurred before and reveals very OCD traits of the culprit(s). If you have any information, please contact the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office at (408) 868-6600. The event number is 150310210C

Stolen Items include:

an iPod Touch 16GB – serial number 1D74862SW4T

Two locking metal cash boxes, one containing about $70 in cash with several coin rolls
The second cash boxes had a bent key and contains misc. trade show supplies and various comics-related cards and stickers

Several loose comics and books. Most of them being short – under 9 inches tall, from A to Dave Cooper, plus most of the E’s and Fs. It’s a lot of books and too many to list right now…

One small white box of standard Marvel and DC Comics about 150 of them.

Every minicomic and digest in the shop from A to Dan James’ The Octopi and the Ocean was taken, including all the Papercutters, every issue of Structures from Uncivilized, all the Michael DeForge, Simon Gane, Mike Bertino, Theo Ellsworth, Tom Neely, Hellen Jo, Tom Kaczynski, Jim Rugg, Kevin Huizenga and many many more.

Two copies of the newest Jim Rugg notebook from AdHouse, Toys in the Basement by Blanquet, many copies of Sam Henderson’s Magic Whistle, several copies of Derf’s True Stories, Theo Ellsworth’s Understanding Monster #2, Several Becky Cloonan comics (The Mire, Demeter, Wolves), two copies of Tyranny of the Muse #2, several copies of Daddy Lightning by Tom Hart, various minicomics by David Lasky, RAW volume 2 number 2, Blab 6 & 7, Remake & Remake Special, and a copy of Noah Van Sciver’s Hypo.

We do have stock in the back still of many of those books but not all.

This second theft has hit us hard. The last time around we were lucky to have a replacement window in the building. That was not the case this time. We have also invested in further protecting our store and office to prevent this from happening again. The loss of stock is massive and it will take us some time to re-inventory. Many of the books are not easily replaceable. 2014 was a hard year for us in many ways, and it was greatly hoped that things would improve this year. We are not getting off to a great start it seems. Anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated. We would prefer you support us by buying the books we sell on WowCool.com. Any artists or publishers that want to replace or donate books, we will forever be in you debt.

After and before photos of the shelves that were hit hardest follow (The before pictures are from January 13, 2015, when we greatly expanded about three shelves of books, mainly the books that were not taken. After photos were taken immediately after the theft was discovered on Saturday afternoon.).