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Sports & Games
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Spells & Subpoenas: How Wizards of the Coast's Pinkerton 'Raid' on a YouTuber Shook the Magic Community
Wizards of the Coast hired Pinkerton agents to confront a YouTuber at his home and retrieve unreleased Magic: The Gathering cards. The agents allegedly threatened the content creator and his wife, causing a significant community backlash over the company's aggressive tactics.
In the world of collectible card games, scoring unreleased products is the ultimate scoop. For YouTuber Dan Cannon, known as “oldschoolmtg,” what began as a content creator's dream quickly spiraled into a distressing real-life encounter. After mistakenly receiving and opening boxes of the unreleased Magic: The Gathering set, March of the Machine: The Aftermath, Cannon found himself face-to-face not with company lawyers, but with agents from the infamous Pinkerton Detective Agency, sent by publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC).
The Unexpected Delivery
The incident began when Cannon received a shipment from a third-party seller. He believed he was buying a different product, but instead found himself in possession of 22 boxes of a highly anticipated, unreleased Magic set. Seizing the opportunity, he did what any content creator would: he filmed an unboxing video, revealing the new cards to the world ahead of schedule. The video quickly went viral within the Magic community, but it also caught the unwanted attention of WotC, a subsidiary of toy giant Hasbro.
A Knock at the Door
Days after the video was posted, two individuals arrived at Cannon's home. They identified themselves as investigators hired by Wizards of the Coast to retrieve stolen property. These investigators were agents from Pinkerton, a private security firm with a long and controversial history. According to Cannon, the encounter was far from amicable. He described the agents as intimidating, allegedly threatening him and his wife with substantial jail time and fines if they didn't cooperate. Cannon stated the confrontation became so stressful that his wife was left in tears. In a video describing the event, he said:
They said, ‘we’re here for the Magic cards, the stolen property.’ They were very serious. They informed us that we could go to jail for up to 10 years, and it was a $200,000 fine.
Ultimately, Cannon surrendered the remaining unopened boxes and the cards he had opened, hoping to de-escalate the situation and protect his family. He was also asked to delete his unboxing video.
The Pinkerton Problem
For many onlookers, WotC's decision to hire Pinkertons was the most alarming part of the story. The Pinkerton Agency, founded in the 1850s, is notorious for its historical role in violently suppressing labor movements and engaging in union-busting activities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Their modern iteration functions as a broad security and risk management firm, but the historical baggage remains. To the community, deploying an agency with such a dark reputation against a fan and content creator seemed like a shocking and disproportionate show of corporate force.
Wizards of the Coast Responds
As news of the incident spread, public outcry forced Wizards of the Coast to issue a statement. While they confirmed their involvement and the hiring of investigators, they attempted to distance themselves from the reported intimidation tactics. Their statement explained:
We take the safety and security of our employees and our customers seriously. We are also committed to protecting our intellectual property and the integrity of our games. We will not be commenting on the details of this ongoing investigation. However, we can confirm that, as part of this investigation, we have engaged a vendor to retrieve the stolen product. It was not our intent to make anyone feel unsafe, and we are re-evaluating our processes for handling these types of situations in the future.
Despite the apology, the damage was done. The community largely saw the response as a hollow attempt at damage control, criticizing the company for an aggressive overreach that alienated one of its own fans. The event stands as a cautionary tale about how a company's effort to protect its intellectual property can backfire spectacularly, transforming a product leak into a full-blown public relations crisis.