Thieves steal AC units from midtown Tulsa gaming, hobby shop mid-heatwave

TULSA, Okla. — A midtown Tulsa business is dealing with a late-September Oklahoma heatwave hotter than Charmander’s tail without air conditioning thanks to thieves.

Dice Addiction Games on East 11th and near South Yale opened for business Monday morning to find that the store that usually deals with battles involving dragon fire was itself dealing with heat hotter than the Pokémon Charmander’s tail.

“I came in, and you could just feel something was off,” said Dice Addiction Owner Chip Knight. “Then I went to the other half of the store, and it was just as hot. It’s very usual for two separate air condition units to go out on their own at the same time.”

Knight said both stores in the early morning were showing 75 degrees on the thermostat, and when he and his landlord went on the roof of the building, that’s when it was discovered two whole air conditioning units had been ripped out.

“It wasn’t just the copper,” Knight said. “The whole units were gone.”

The AC units sit on the roof of the building next to a fire escape for the second floor. Knight said the fire escape where the thieves accessed the roof is in the blind spot for security cameras, and so they have no idea who left them to sweat out a mid-September heatwave in the middle of their 9th anniversary sale. It’s also not clear because of the way the entire units were ripped out if any holes have been left in the roof that will later become a problem the next time it rains.

“Business has fallen off,” he said. “It is very uncomfortable in there, and those who need things have called and ask for curbside service. We are still in the middle of our 9th anniversary sale. We are still operating and open for anyone who needs us. It’s just very warm inside the store right now.”

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Most of the card tournaments in the eastern half of the store that was once a standalone bookstore have been cancelled because the heat is extreme uncomfortable.

“We try to have some kind of event almost every night,” he said. “There’s no way we can expect people to just tough it out with as hot as the temperature outside is.”

Because of supply chain issues, only one AC compressor unit is available to the shop immediately, and the other one is being ordered to be installed at a later time.

“We need to at least get our tournament room taken care of and back open,” he said. “We are a community, and people plan their weeks around our events.”

The building does have insurance, and a report has been filed with Tulsa Police. Anyone with information can reach out to Dice Addiction.