A video game bar in Mesa, AZ was robbed not once, but twice, over the past couple weeks. Endgame, in Mesa’s redeveloping “Fiesta District,” normally carries a number of current and retro video game consoles. On July 11, the bar was robbed by unnamed individuals who made off with the entire collection of retro game titles, all of which belonged to the bar’s owner, along with various pieces of sound equipment used for live music and dance parties. Yesterday, the owner reported a second robbery on the bar’s Facebook page, along with pictures of the perpetrators who were captured on security camera footage.
Among the thousands of dollars of product, DJ equipment and petty cash they stole was also 172 (all) of our cartridge based video games; all of our NES, SNES, Genesis, N64 and Dreamcast games are gone.We have notified as many local used game stores as possible to be on the look out for someone looking to offload large quantities of old games but thus far have not had any luck recovering any of them. It is difficult to accept as many of these old games came from my personal collection, gathered over the years since childhood, but at this point it is unlikely they will ever be recovered.
The owner indicated that Mesa police apprehended the thieves during the course of the second robbery but “subsequently released them.” We reached out to Mesa PD through their public information office, but they declined to comment on the incidents, stating that the investigation was ongoing.
