Beating, Robbery Drive Pair From Beanbag Business

Carol Garcia sold Beanie Babies at her Santa Ana store, but the toys were more than just stock to her.

She collected the palm-size beanbag dolls, promoted Beanie Baby events and used them to raise money for charities.

All that changed Thursday after two men robbed Sergio’s Accessories, the warehouse and storefront in Santa Ana that she owns with her husband, Sergio, 36. The robbers clubbed the Garcias in the head with metal pipes and took a box full of the dolls, along with $1,000 in cash.

After leaving the hospital, Carol Garcia, 40, got on the Internet and issued a warning to others on her Beanie Babies Web page:

“My warehouse was robbed today in broad daylight. I will close my warehouse permanently. I am moving to a new location,” she wrote. “I must warn everyone! Be careful!! My husband and I were beaten with metal pipes on the head. We are in agony tonight.”

Police said Friday that they have no suspects.

An employee of the store, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Garcias are concentrating on healing their emotional wounds.

“This has been extremely traumatic,” she said. “I can’t believe people would damage other people over a beanbag. That’s all it is.”

The employee said Garcia had raffled Beanie Babies on the Internet and gave the money to charities involved in pediatric medicine and Parkinson’s disease.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for Beanie Babies is $5. But as the fad has exploded, some have sold for hundreds.

An employee of Ty Inc. in Illinois, the manufacturer, said the toys were “meant for kids to buy them with their allowance.” But the employee, who would not be named, said the company can’t control the black market or even the price set by retailers.

Nancy Trempe, who owns Comics Unlimited in Westminster, said she continues to sell them for $5 apiece, but limits the number each customer may buy. That, she said, has spawned parking-lot dealing.

“I have seen people buy one or two, and then come in disguise to get more,” Trempe said. “I have seen people pay other customers or kids in the parking lot to come in and buy them.”

Trempe said she also has seen toy fads lead to crime.

“At another store we had a break-in for Magic the Gathering cards, and at one time it was baseball cards. Before that, it was comic books, and tomorrow it will be something different.”