6 Teens in NY arested for acting out GTA-style crime spree

Masta Shake · 07-04-2008, 02:45 PM

Quote:

NY-- THE world's top-selling video game has been blamed for a two-hour crime rampage by a gang of six teens in New York.

The gang decided to take Grand Theft Auto IV from the television screen to the streets of Long Island.

In the video game, which has sold more than 8.5 million copies worldwide, players shoot police, sell drugs and car-jack vehicles.

The game, released in Australia last month, is the No 1-selling game on the Xbox 360 console and is rated MA15+ in Australia,

In the real-life re-enactment of the game, the crazed youths' rampage involved mugging, several break-ins and an attempted car-jacking in Garden City.

"They decided they were going to go out to commit robberies and emulate the character Nico Belic in the particularly violent video game Grand Theft Auto," said Nassau County Police detective-lieutenant Raymond Cote.

"These teens have difficulty separating fact from fiction, fantasy from reality. It was quite alarming."

Police said that the rampage began at 11.30pm on Tuesday when teenagers Brandon Cruz, 15, Gurnoor Singh, 14, Samuel Philip, 16, and Jaspreet Singh, 17, were sitting in Memorial Park in New Hyde Park looking for something to do.

Police said the youths decided to act out the game, in which players live out the life of Belic, an Eastern European criminal who uses murder and robbery to rise to the top of the underworld in "Liberty City", which has a close similarity to New York City.

"They were bored and decided this was a good idea," Lt Cote said.

According to police, the boys first mugged a man at a bus stop near the park, beat him and knocked out some teeth.

They then broke into some sheds and garages, stole bats and crowbars and met up with a couple more teens to continue the rampage.

The six then attempted to stage some car-jackings in Garden City. It was game over when one of their would-be victims - a 23-year-old woman in a 2008 BMW - called the police, who quickly arrested them.

All four of the original teen plotters were arrested, along with the two youths who joined them, Stephen Attard, 18, and Dylan Laird, 17.

They were all charged with first-degree robbery, except for Jaspreet Singh, who was charged with possession of stolen property. Other charges were pending.

Police would not say specifically how they knew the teens' crimes were motivated by Grand Theft Auto and not by some other motive. They said they discovered it during their investigation.

Jack Thompson is gonna have a fucking heyday with this. What a bunch of tits.

Link -> Teens bring Grand Theft Auto to life on crime rampage | NEWS.com.au

1Nightmare1 · 07-04-2008, 03:46 PM

Yeah my dad(anti-video gamer) told me about that. This is why we look so bad, because some idiots who don't know how to handle reality, do this kind of crap, and then video game companies and me get heat for this.

Masta Shake · 07-04-2008, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1Nightmare1

Yeah my dad(anti-video gamer) told me about that. This is why we look so bad, because some idiots who don't know how to handle reality, do this kind of crap, and then video game companies and me get heat for this.

Exactly. Idiots. If games weren't around, they'd be acting out some shit that they saw on television or in a movie. I was gonna say in a book, but I'm guessing shits like that have never so much as cracked a magazine, let alone a novel.

1Nightmare1 · 07-04-2008, 04:33 PM

You know it sucks how much parents can be brainwashed by media they heard about GTA IV, its all over exhaugerated, I'm 17 and I still hear crap from my dad about me buying it and all.

GTA IV takes a lot of heat for being M rated and with all these stuff on there that you can avoid.

I just hope the industry is not going to be ruined because of this bullsh!t, its parents fault for thier kids not being able this stuff, and like they say, if you can't take the heat, stay out of kitchen, its not GTA IV's fault, its the fault of their stupidity, peer pressure and some bad parenting.

Masta Shake · 07-04-2008, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1Nightmare1

You know it sucks how much parents can be brainwashed by media they heard about GTA IV, its all over exhaugerated, I'm 17 and I still hear crap from my dad about me buying it and all.

GTA IV takes a lot of heat for being M rated and with all these stuff on there that you can avoid.

I just hope the industry is not going to be ruined because of this bullsh!t, its parents fault for thier kids not being able this stuff, and like they say, if you can't take the heat, stay out of kitchen, its not GTA IV's fault, its the fault of their stupidity, peer pressure and some bad parenting.

That's exactly right, I'm a dad myself, and I have no problems letting my daughter watch R-rated movies or sitting with me while i'm playing M rated games. It's all about context. At the age of 4 she knows better than these kids apparently did.

CrAzY · 07-04-2008, 06:34 PM

lol there would be thugs going around doing this sort of thing anyway, even if gta didnt exsist

blamin it on a game is just stoooopid

Bunnytard · 07-04-2008, 06:57 PM

Bunch of dumbasses

Raz · 07-04-2008, 06:58 PM

They had to blame it on something i suppose, idiots.

TheStig · 07-04-2008, 07:37 PM

What twats. These are the kind of people that are just so stupid that they can't be satisfied by playing a game. They have to try and play the game in real life. This is the reason my parents hate shooting games; they hear these stories but don't realise what d***heads the guys must have been to pull something like that off...

Joel · 07-05-2008, 06:23 AM

Idiots. Just like the idiots who act gangster after playing SA to a lesser extent.