SPOKANE, Wash. — Brian Altimier says he couldn’t connect with his fifteen-year-old son Alex until they found a joint love for Pokémon. For nearly five years, they have been competing in Pokémon tournaments at The Comic Book Shop in the Northtown Mall. So when the cards were stolen, the impact on the family unit was huge.
“That’s how we bond, we didn’t have that anymore, and I was just heartbroken,” said Brian Altimier.
Alex’s Pokémon card collection was worth $1000 and was stolen from the family’s car. Altimier says he didn’t know how to break it to his son. Altimier said Alex, who has high-functioning autism, didn’t quite understand that his cards were gone initially, “it was heartbreaking. I didn’t know what to say to him after that.”
Altimier says going to weekly Pokémon tournaments has helped Alex grow socially and have a shared interest with peers. Altimier says his son has blossomed due to the tournaments.
“He’s not as introverted anymore, he’s much more outgoing. He’s just a kid that everybody loves.”
So when the cards were gone, he panicked, “I called up my wife and said the Pokémon cards, the backpack it’s gone. We don’t have the playmats, the cards, the deck, everything we worked on. She just said ‘what are we going to do.”
Justin Lamb, an employee, and organizer of Pokémon Tournaments at The Comic Book Shop who organizes the tournaments have seen Alex become the teen he is today and knew he had to jump into action, “my first reaction was I’m going to do everything I can to make this right for him.”
Luckily his boss felt the same, “Immediately were like, this kid is such a good kid, this shouldn’t happen to him, let’s make this right, and they wanted to not only make it right but make it better,” said Lamb.
So they posted on their company’s Facebook page, and the response was overwhelming. Not just the Pokémon community, customers of the store came together and donated $3000 worth of items. Needless to say, Alex and his family were moved.
“All the emotion that Alex doesn’t show, I was feeling, I didn’t know he had such an impact on the community, but it just goes to show that even if you see someone once a week, you can make an impact,” said Altimier.
