London card collector, 22, says he has been robbed of £20,000 after his 'suitcase was stolen from a bus in Germany'
EXCLUSIVE: Anes Bouzouin, 22, was travelling from the Bandai Card Games Fest in Dusseldorf to catch a flight home from Eindhoven in the Netherlands when he said his bag disappeared.
At least £20,000 worth of collector cards were stolen from a London man while bussing home from a card convention in Germany.
Anes Bouzouin, 22, was travelling on a FlixBus from the Bandai Card Games Fest in Dusseldorf to catch a flight home from Eindhoven in the Netherlands when he said his bag disappeared.
Inside were around 300 One Piece trading cards worth more than £20,000, Anes said. One Piece is a manga and anime series which has a card game similar to Pokémon alongside it.
Anes, who said he is the number one-ranked One Piece player in the UK, told the Daily Mail: 'I've gone through the stages of grief, and I'm just looking for solutions and trying to see what I can do.
'It was very hard. It still is very hard. It was quite emotional at the start, but right now, I'm trying to keep myself as positive as possible, and trying to keep myself looking at what's possibly done.'
The game has gained massive traction in recent months, with the value of some cards shooting up 300 per cent in weeks, Anes said.
The most expensive card - a one-of-a-kind world championship prize - has been sold unofficially for £2million, he claimed.
He is currently a carer for his mother, who has cancer, but this massive financial blow has meant he will now have to look for new employment.
Anes Bouzouin, 22, said his bag with at least £20,000 of collector cards was stolen while on a FlixBus between Germany and the Netherlands
Anes reported the theft to FlixBus and the police as soon as he realised his bag was gone but said they were not much help
The cards stolen in the bag were extremely rare, with one of them being valued at £15,000 alone
The suspected theft happened while his bus stopped near the Dutch town of Roermond - between Dusseldorf and Eindhoven - Anes believes.
The vigilant card player got out and checked that his bag was still there - it was, so they carried on as usual.
The bus then stopped again for a short while shortly after this just outside Roermond, but Anes thought nothing of it so stayed in his seat.
He said he then saw the driver hop out of the bus and run off to the back, then get back in and carry on driving. Anes and his friends 'felt uneasy' about it.
'I just had that really eerie sensation. So, as soon as we got off the bus at the next stop, we ran to the back to check on our bags, but my suitcase wasn't there'.
Dismayed, Anes was not sure how his bag disappeared, believing perhaps the luggage compartment was not properly closed and his 'suitcase could be lying in the middle of the highway'.