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Console peripherals are Weapons!
Posted by: Emmanuel Deloget at November 2, 2007 5:57:34 PM

Two young guys have been sentenced to jail after they tried to rob a gas station, armed with an impressive and dangerous... NES Zapper.

GamePro says:
Quote:
Arthur Swain, 18, and Jeremy Goins, 20, of Covington held up an Ameristop Food Mart in May for $100 dollars cash. The two men, who plead guilty to second degree robbery, each received a maximum 10 year sentence from the Kenton Circuit Court Judge.


Interestingly, eyewitnesses and law enforcement failed to initially recognize the "weapon" as a twenty year-old toy gun, the NES Zapper.

Article doesn't say if the defender was scared by the futuristic look of the beast or by the missing sci-fi laser sounds that would have proved the weapon to be a fake.


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 "Console peripherals are Weapons!" Discussion
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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message swiftcoder     Member since: 7/3/2003  From: Boston, MA
 Posted - 11/2/2007 12:30:47 PM
Nice one!

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Matt328  GDNet+   Member since: 5/11/2006
 Posted - 11/2/2007 1:19:41 PM
Geez, these guys robbed someone with a zapper? I wonder what you could take over with a super scope?

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Trillian     Member since: 4/28/2005  From: Montreal, Quebec
 Posted - 11/2/2007 3:20:42 PM
Quote:
Original post by Matt328
Geez, these guys robbed someone with a zapper? I wonder what you could take over with a super scope?


With a super scope... of with the Wii sword&shield controller kit!

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message PhoenixV     Member since: 9/24/2005  From: Brisbane, Queensland
 Posted - 11/2/2007 3:48:52 PM
u know thats just gonna spurn the whole "violence learnt from video games", duck hunt was a very violent game..... ;)

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message cdoty     Member since: 7/14/2000  From: Sugar Land, TX
 Posted - 11/2/2007 3:56:40 PM
So, Einstein was right:

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.



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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message KaBaL     Member since: 3/2/2003
 Posted - 11/2/2007 5:00:58 PM
These guys wouldn't have even been born yet, when the zapper came out.

Also sad to see that this took place in the area where I grew up at. Lets just say, this is about as much as I could expect from the people that live there.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Daaark     Member since: 8/1/2001  From: Ottawa, On, Canada
 Posted - 11/2/2007 9:32:24 PM
1) LOL
2) Ten years is a bit much for this

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Matrin     Member since: 9/27/2006
 Posted - 11/3/2007 3:12:00 AM
They probably got 5 years added just becouse they used the zapperz, an made a fool of the police. :D

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message greggles     Member since: 9/28/2007
 Posted - 11/4/2007 8:47:51 AM
You know, the zapper would look dangerous, if it weren't for the cheap plastic casing and the WIRE coming out of the bottom! How stupid do you have to be to rob a place with a zapper? They could probably do more damage with a PS3 controller!

Greggles

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message Ravyne     Member since: 2/26/2007  From: Kirkland, WA
 Posted - 11/4/2007 3:39:13 PM
For those of us old enough to remember the 80s, its actually pretty serious. I recall at least one incident where a kid was shot and killed by a police officer after he pulled a toy gun on him. The original Grey NES zapper could easily look realistic enough to fool even a police officer at a distance, in low light, or even simply in the heat of the moment.

Thats exactly the reason all toy guns now have the bright orange caps at the end and exactly the reason that newer NES zappers were almost entirely bright orange. Even then it puts an officer in a hard place, because who's to say that a more devious criminal hasn't simply painted a real gun orange in order to confuse them?

From a crime point of view, a fake gun represents just as real of a threat as a real one at the time of the crime when information is imperfect; They should be punished just as if it were real.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message johnhattan  GDNet Reviews Lead   Member since: The dawn of time   From: Southlake, TX
 Posted - 11/4/2007 4:01:20 PM
I bet after they got shoved into the police car, the dog popped up and laughed at 'em.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message dgreen02  GDNet+   Member since: 6/3/2005  From: Raleigh, NC
 Posted - 11/4/2007 7:45:11 PM
I can see a squad of thieves storming a bank with NES zappers making "pew pew pew" sounds, while the people in the bank just stand there looking at them un-phased.

Great news story.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message shotgunnutter  Banned   Member since: 8/29/2007  From: Leicester, Leicester
Warning Level: 10%
 Posted - 11/4/2007 8:15:40 PM
How could anybody mistake that for a real firearm? Even I wouldn't be fooled, and I've never held a handgun.


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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message swiftcoder     Member since: 7/3/2003  From: Boston, MA
 Posted - 11/5/2007 7:04:28 AM
Quote:
Original post by shotgunnutter
How could anybody mistake that for a real firearm? Even I wouldn't be fooled, and I've never held a handgun.


It is more a matter that there is the possibility someone might mistake it for a real gun.

In areas where gun crime is relatively common, the police tend to operate on a "shoot first" principle - if they see you pull a gun, they shoot. So if some kid pulls a zapper, and gets shot by police, it is no end of trouble in the PR department.

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Reply Quoting This MessageEdit Message NightCabbage     Member since: 11/5/2007  From: Hobart, Tasmania
 Posted - 11/6/2007 5:06:43 PM
rofl

Someone should pull out a Wii Zapper and hold up a police station :D

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