March of the Machine: Aftermath, the upcoming epilogue toMagic: the Gathering’s most recent expansion,was leaked online just last week. Soon after hobbyist YouTuber Oldschoolmtg revealed 50 new cards in Aftermath,agents from the Pinkerton security agencyshowed up at his door demanding that he hand over the cards under punishment of fines and jail time.
Not only that, but the Pinkerton agents also allegedly questioned Oldschoolmtg’s neighbor too. “Harassing my neighbors is unnecessary–this whole thing is unnecessary,” he saidin a follow-up video(the original unboxing video had been taken down at the request of Magic developer Wizards of the Coast).
Related:Sending Pinkerton After The MTG Leaker Is The Worst Thing WotC Has Ever Done
“If Wizards had just called me or emailed me, we could have handled this totally civilly. I would have cooperated, they could have sent me a call tag for the product or replaced it with the product I actually ordered and everything would have been fine. They did not need to send these Pinkertons to my house, and they definitely didn’t need to go to my neighbors' houses and grill them for information.”
The Pinkerton agency has a reputation for intimidation and skullduggerystretching back to the late 1800s. Back then, various US governments contracted Pinkerton for strikebreaking, with Pinkerton agents infamously accused of instigating a deadly fight between state militia and striking steelworkers during the 1892 Homestead Strike. Pinkerton now offers its services to major corporations, with agents allegedly working for Starbucks and Amazon in their union-busting efforts.
Pinkerton also works as a private investigator, although Wizards of the Coast said in a statement toi09, “Under no circumstances would we instruct any employee or contracted agency to intimidate an individual.”
However, this isn’t the first time Wizards contracted Pinkerton to send agents to investigate a leak. Sources speaking to i09 noted a 2017 investigation into an uncut sheet of foil Ixalan cards stolen directly from the manufacturer. The person who took the sheet of uncut cards attempted to sell them at the local card shop where they worked, with Pinkerton agents showing up to both retrieve the sheet and conduct interviews with staff. During those interviews, Pinkerton agents said that Wizards has sent them out “multiple times” to investigate these “sorts of problems.”
Additionally, the current Manager of Global Investigations at Hasbro is a former Pinkerton agent, while the current director of risk management was previously the director of supply chain security practice at Pinkerton.
We can all agree it’s a bit of an overreaction sending an agency with a history of intimidation to retrieve a few lost cards, even if they are for an unreleased Magic set. Let’s hope that Wizards of the Coast is reconsidering its relationship with Pinkerton in light of the current scandal.
