8 Funny Geek Crimes

Arrested for a virtual murder

 A 43-year-old Japanese woman, angry over a sudden divorce in the virtual online game Maple Story, has been arrested on suspicion of hacking into the game where she killed her once-virtual husband, authorities said.
Authorities said the Miyazaki woman illegally accessed the game with a password she hijacked from a colleague. That made it appear as if her coworker committed the online murder.
According to The Associated Press, the woman told police: “I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry.”
The two had never met in real life. (Link)

Watching the sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica while driving

 A truck driver watched episodes of the cult sci-fi show Battlestar Galactica as he drove a 38-ton lorry along a motorway, a court heard.
Benjamin Trotsman, 37, was spotted driving erratically in the early hours of the morning by another trucker who called police.
A Cumbria Police spokesman said: “The driver was seen to be watching a film on a laptop computer that was situated on the dashboard in his cab.
“He appeared oblivious to other motorists and continued to drive in an erratic manner, speeding up and slowing down, and crossing on occasions on to the hard shoulder.”
Police stopped the lorry and when they examined his laptop it appeared that Trotsman had been watching Battlestar Galactica. (Link)

"I have killed them all!"… ups… sorry… Wrong Number!

 A call mistakenly made by a victorious video gamer led to his arrest on an outstanding warrant.
Authorities arrested Thomas Ballard, 29, of Delhi, early Monday after a woman reported receiving a late-night call from someone saying, “I have killed them all.”
Ballard’s number showed up on the woman’s caller ID; he’d called by mistake, meaning instead to get a buddy to talk-up his success in an Xbox game, said Sgt. Julie Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana State Police.
Authorities following up at the address, to investigate whether there had been any foul play, found no evidence of wrongdoing, she said. But they did find, in the process of identifying Ballard, that he had a 5-year-old warrant out of Baton Rouge, charging him with failure to appear on a possession of cocaine charge.
Ballard was booked into the Richland Parish Detention Center for extradition to Baton Rouge.
“It was weird the way this all came down,” Lewis said Tuesday. “This isn’t something you could just make up.” (Link)

Student transferred for making counter strike map based on school

A senior at Clements High School in Sugar Land, Texas was transferred to an alternative education center after it was learned that the student had created a map of his school in the online game Counter-Strike
The student wasn’t arrested or charged with any crimes, but police were called in to search his home, where they found five swords. Police also ordered the student to erase the game and maps from his computer. (Link)

 

 

 

 

Gamers Arrested By SWAT Team After Playing Playstation Too Loudly

 Two gamers in Denmark had a SWAT team knock down their door and arrest them after they were playing a video game too loudly. The pair were playing Rainbow Six on their PlayStation 3 when neighbors called the police to report that they heard loud gunshots coming from their apartment.
Police quickly cordoned off the area and stormed the house using a megaphone to command the pair to surrender. The two gamers were handcuffed until officers realized that they posed no threat.
A spokesman for the Copenhagen police said that they are obliged to investigate any reports of gunshots, which leads to occasional false alarms. (Link)

 

 

 

 

Try to sell "World of Warcraft gold"

 In the US, you can’t really arrest someone for selling gold in-game — it’s against Blizzard’s Terms of Service, so they can ban you from the game or even file suit against you, but it’s not actually illegal. But in China, under communism, things are apparently a little different. Two gold farmers have actually been arrested by the government for “unfair revenue distribution” — apparently the two had a disagreement about how to distribute the over $200,000 they had made from selling gold in World of Warcraft. (Link)

Arrested for carrying his replica laser blaster

 “Kim”, 32, dressed in the outfit of an Imperial Death Star guard, was pinned to the ground and handcuffed by the other Force – the Victorian police force – after he was spotting marching through the city with a replica laser blaster poking out of his backpack.
Kim was on his way to a photo shoot with the MX newspaper, but concerned patrons at the Southgate retail complex on the Yarra River alerted security guards when they spotted the Sci Fi foot soldier eating breakfast in the foodcourt in his Evil Empire regalia.
“I will be requesting the safe return of my trooper’s replica movie prop and asking for all charges to be dropped”, 501st Legion Commanding Officer Bruce Harrison said.
He said his trooper’s weapon replica was worth up to $500, and he was hoping to negotiate it’s safe return this afternoon. (Link)

The Gunman with water guns 

 On May 12, 2009, an incident involving the ‘Assassin’ game happened behind a North Hampton, New Hampshire restaurant, where an employee spotted a man in dark clothing with a gun. He called the police and the student in question did not resist but simply walked to his car and explained the game to the police. The student did not run away from the police, he cooperated fully, and was not arrested. The man turned out to be a high school senior from Exeter, New Hampshire waiting for another high school student to come out of her job at the restaurant with a squirt gun in hand. (Link)

 

13 Crazy Old Videogame Ads

On "Revengers of Vengeance" you seek for revenge in return for their vengeance, which came as a revenge of your vengeance, which... nevermind.
The best of all? It's "based on a true story"
(Extreme Entertainment Group - 1993)

 Master your skills, while being an overgrown man-child who's cheating on his girlfriend/mom with a Game Boy
(Interact Games - 1994)

 CYBERpad is capable of making a skeletal human forearm jump out of your TV to strangle you at any moment
(Suncom - circa 1991)

 Got Milk? Then don't blow it out your nose
(Data East - 1995)

Good things will happen... like a baseball breaking your window and hitting you in the head.
(Tecmo - 1994) 

 The perfect Christmas guest
(Muse - 1982)

 Apparently, nerds get cooler by playing videogames
(Hot-B - 1990)

 Life lesson: Never give your Joystick to an Alligator
(Hot-B - 1990)

Once you start playing the "Zoop" game, it replaces the girl of your dreams, your acne pimples... and such a healthy game is America's largest killer of time.
(Viacom - 1995) 

What's better than golf? ROBOTIC golf of course!
(TOHO - 1993) 

  Tell Santa you have no ballz kid
(PF Magic - 1994)

 "Actual Scream Shot"...
(Universal Interactive Studios - 1992)

 Mortal Kombat "so real it hurts!"

(Midway - 1992)

6 Unbelievable Videogame Stories

1. The man who sued a video game maker over addiction.

 A man in Hawaii is suing a video game developer saying that the game Lineage II was so addictive that he is unable to bathe, dress himself, communicate with others and wake-up during the day. 51-year-old Craig Smallwood is suing South Korean video game firm NCSoft Corp. for a number of charges including unfair and deceptive trade practices and accuses the company of causing "extreme and serious emotional distress and depression."

He says the multi-player, online role-playing game made him spend three weeks in the hospital and that he currently requires therapy three times a week. The paper reports that earlier this month a judge dismissed charges of misrepresentation/deceit, unfair and deceptive trade practices, intentional infliction of emotional distress and punitive damages.

However, the company still faces charges of defamation, negligence, gross negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress. Smallwood claims that he spent more than 20,000 hours playing the medieval-themed role-playing game from 2004 to 2009 and that he received no warning from the company that the game could be addictive. (Link)

 

2. The toddlers who were found in street while their father was playing a computer game.

 Indianapolis police arrested a 31-year-old father of two after finding his children, one naked and one wearing only a diaper, wandering the streets as he played a computer game.
Timothy Hausaman's two children were discovered wandering around the apartment complex in which they lived near a busy road Saturday night. A neighbor kept an eye on the children for 20 minutes before calling police. When officers arrived at Hausaman's apartment they found the door open. No one responded to the door so they went inside and found the father playing Atlantis on his laptop.

The man told police that he left his children downstairs to play and was so into his game he had no idea they had left the apartment. Hausaman told police during his arrest that, "I am obviously not very good at watching children". His wife was away on business during the incident. (Link)

3. The mother who called the cops to stop son from playing Grand Theft Auto.

 Police say a frustrated Boston woman called police to say she couldn't get her 14-year-old son to stop playing video games and go to sleep. Officer Joe Zanol said that the mother called for help around 2:30am to say that the teenager also walked around the house and turned on all the lights. Surprisingly, her call actually worked, as two officers who responded to the house persuaded the child to obey his mother.

Zanoli says the mother's police call over the teen's video game enthusiasm 'was a little unusual, but by no means is it surprising - especially in today's day and age when these kids play video games and computer games.' According to The Boston Herald, who first reported the police call, the boy was playing 'Grand Theft Auto' (although they don't report which entry in the GTA series had so grabbed the boy's attention.) (Link)

4. The man who shipped himself across country playing MMO.

 Have you ever wished you could shut yourself off from the world so you could catch up on playing video games? Jordan Wayne Long has taken this thought to the next level shipping himself from Arkansas to Oregon in a crate while playing Lord of The Rings Online. Long's friend Bradi Roberts would be transporting him on her truck, so he wouldn't be going through any kind of actual postal system, nor have to sign up for an Amazon credit card in order to get free shipping. Long planned to update the interested masses via his Twitter and also created a blog to cover his week of playing LOTRO in a box, which should barely be any different from playing it in his room. I kid, MMO gamers, because I love. Long's experiment was planned to take place between July 1 to July 7, and end at a Portland art gallery. (Link)

5. The man who hacked a videogame to propose to his girlfriend.

 Knowing your girlfriend's favorite hobbies is a great start for planning a proposal. For Bernie Peng, that meant using the game 'Bejeweled' to ask Tammy Li to marry him. Peng, a financial software programmer, spent a month tweaking the game so when Li reached a certain score, a ring and the proposal popped up on the screen.

According to Li, he set a pretty low score; she is now sporting an identical pink sapphire engagement ring. The game manufacturer eventually heard about the story. Instead of being angry that Peng had hacked into their game, company officials were so impressed they offered to pay for part of the wedding. (Link)

6. The man who was hit by SUV while playing real-life 'Frogger'.

A man has been hospitalized after police in South Carolina say he was hit by an SUV while playing a real-life version of the video game "Frogger." In the "Frogger" arcade game, players move frogs through traffic on a busy road and through a hazard-filled river. Before he was hit, police say the man had been discussing the game with his friends. Chief Jimmy Dixon says the man yelled "go" and darted into oncoming traffic in the four-lane highway.

No charges are expected against the driver. The name of the man who was struck has not been released. (Link)