Crime File: Crook Steals GTA IV, Has Real-world Intro to Jail

April 30, 2008 -

Police in San Diego arrested a 27-year-old man yesterday and charged him with robbing a GameStop location, pepper-spraying two employees there and stealing a launch day copy of Grand Theft Auto IV.

Richard Fiel (at left, in the back of a police car) found that it's tougher to shake real cops than GTA IV's animated ones and was busted after a short standoff.

In addition to GTA IV, Police found a copy of GTA III and a PlayStation 3 controller in his pickup truck. A San Diego PD spokesperson told the local NBC affiliate:

The call came out as a robbery of a commercial business... and the suspect was described, and the vehicle that he got into was described as a white Toyota pickup truck, lifted with the tailgate down, and our helicopter ABLE spotted the vehicle southbound. The officers followed it.

There was no word on how many police alert stars Fiel's crime generated.

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Comments

Submitted by PHOENIXZERO (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 13:02.

They're going to be showing it on CNNHN.... Or they probably have already since the stupid thing loops every 30 minutes.

Submitted by KayleL (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:53.

I hope no one uses the excuse of GTAIII taught him to do it. If he is stealing GTAIV, then ofcourse he played GTAIII.

Submitted by chadachada123 (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 14:45.

hax. You can't use pepper spray. But I would have to say 3 stars

Submitted by Ryan the Gamer (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:42.

I'm gonna take a stab at it and say... 5 stars. This was clearly a game-motivated robbing and should be sensationalized along with the rest of the mass hysteria surrounding this atrocious game.

>.>

/off Sarcasm.

Submitted by Unrated (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:45.

5 Stars would call in army,
4 would be swat,
3 they bring in a heli
2 they start shooting
1 ... erm I guess they would club you if you got near em.
So I have to go with two.

Submitted by Salen (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:46.

I saw this on the news. The guy started kicking the door when the news crews filmed him in the car and the police threatened to tase him.

Good times. Good times.

Submitted by Twin-Skies (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:51.

For once, a game made an idiot do the crime

Submitted by Shoehorn O'Plenty (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 06:56.

It's funny how many of the alarmists would decry this as a game related robbery.

In reality, where the rest of us live, the correct term is MONEY related robbery.

Submitted by mogbert (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 07:46.

I'm going to be using this concept for the next few weeks, so forgive me if I'm still ironing out some of the phrasing.

GTA doesn't make someone into a criminal. If someone comits a crime, like stealing GTA, it isn't unusual and has been done consistantly for all games at all retail locations (the shrink percentages in video games is relatively high in all retail markets). With any game that sell several million copies, you are going to get a cross section of humanity, from the best of the best to the lowest of the low.

The gaming comunity never claimed that all gamers are saints.

Submitted by SimonBob on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 07:47.

Is five stars an army now? It was six in the last game. If they called in the chopper, though, then he brought it up to at least three.

Anyway, I think we're safe from the "GTA made me do it" excuse, since there's no pepper spray in the game. Unless there is now. I'm a little behind the times since they didn't release a version for a system I own. They really should've ported it to the SNES for me.

---
Fangamer

Submitted by DavCube (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 07:54.

I think even Thompson could see that, stealing several copies, his only goal was to sell on ebay.

Submitted by MattK (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 07:54.

You suppose the "evidence" from the earlier post on JT refers to this? Sure, the guy is in San Diego, not Florida, but when has that ever stopped him from interfering in something that doesn't concern him?

Submitted by Cidas (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 08:08.

27 years old? He looks like a kid in the picture.

Submitted by LightWarrior (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 08:20.

I wonder if this will get a blind eye only because the guy's 27.

Submitted by Jon Kanders (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 08:56.

Epic. Fail.

Submitted by Matt (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 09:34.

Have fun in the pokey, ya dope!

Submitted by Gameclucks (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 09:58.

Richard Feil? More like Richard FAIL!! amirite?

Talk about being the captain of the failboat.

Submitted by Paulk (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 10:03.

Why do asshats do this... now the news reports that crazed gamers go to steal games...

Submitted by IllegallyMindedJohn (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 10:13.

1 Star.

idiot.

Submitted by Zmobie (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 10:38.

lol he maced 2 people for GTA haha! i walked into wal mart at noon picked up a copy and walked out...he probially got 1 star lol

Submitted by Rodrigo YbÃ¡Ã±ez GarcÃa (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 10:47.

If he says GTA teached him to do it, then he is the worst fan GTA have ever had.

Submitted by Bongotezz (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 12:18.

what a dumbass.

Submitted by Icehawk (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 12:55.

I have to go along with the general idea of this jerk being an idiot. Pepper spraying GS employees. Yeah they can be annoying but they just doing their jobs. Cannot even claim GTA4 made him do it, as he stole it and was busted before playing.

Ah no. I hope they put him in a place far from polite society.

Submitted by PHOENIXZERO (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 13:11.

Well, they didn't really show that but they talked about the game, mainly the business and that it was Rated M for Mature.

Submitted by Smarty Pants (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 15:44.

Just because a guy steals lots of copies of GTA IV dosen't mean all gamers are psychos who are willing to hurt people to get their favorite games!
1 star on the wanted scale and intelligence

Submitted by Xlorep DarkHelm (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 15:46.

@KayleL

I hope no one uses the excuse of GTAIII taught him to do it. If he is stealing GTAIV, then ofcourse he played GTAIII.

Nah, the excuse will be that GTAIV taught him to do it. Just sit a second, and think of the ramifications of that one. It hurts the brain.

Submitted by Loudspeaker (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 15:48.

If he had played GTA he'd have already known that this crime would have never worked and the police would catch him :)

Submitted by Ravenhawk (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 18:46.

The part I'm curious about is HOW he managed to accumulate three stars without killing any police officers. [/sarcasm]

Submitted by Ryot Control (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 19:00.

Shoehorn O'Plenty was right on the money!

It's not game related robbery. I blame the economy.

Submitted by NL (not verified) on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 02:09.

I bet he was on his way to respray the pickup before he got busted.

Submitted by SithLibrarian (not verified) on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 15:43.

There was no word on how many police alert stars Fiel’s crime generated.

I love you, Dennis.

Shout box

Michael Chandra: So really the guy's own words strike me as "wah! How dare you disagree with me!" behaviour, which is the sort of childish attitude I am unfortunately not surprised by.10/20/2014 - 2:17pm

Michael Chandra: Correct AE, but then again the owner's own words are about "wishes", not about an order. No "we told him not to", but going against his wishes.10/20/2014 - 2:16pm

Matthew Wilson: yup. sadly that has been true for awhile.10/20/2014 - 2:10pm

james_fudge: welcome to 2014 politics. Increasingly fought online10/20/2014 - 1:54pm

E. Zachary Knight: It is honestly a shame that anyone has to publicly state they are against such vile behavior, but that is the sad life we live.10/20/2014 - 1:46pm

E. Zachary Knight: Decided to publicly reiterate my opposition to harassment campaigns. http://randomtower.com/2014/10/just-stop-with-the-harassment-and-bullying-campaigns-already/10/20/2014 - 1:45pm

Andrew Eisen: Michael Chandra - Unless I overlooked it, we haven't seen how the directive to not talk about whatever he wasn't supposed to talk about was phrased so it’s hard to say if it could have been misconstrued as a suggestion or not.10/20/2014 - 12:35pm

Andrew Eisen: Hey, the second to last link is the relevant one! He actually did say "let them suffer." Although, he didn't say it to the other person he was bickering with.10/20/2014 - 12:29pm

Neo_DrKefka: https://archive.today/F14zZ https://archive.today/SxFas https://archive.today/1upoI https://archive.today/0hu7i https://archive.today/NsPUC https://archive.today/fLTQv https://archive.today/Wpz8S10/20/2014 - 11:21am

Andrew Eisen: Neo_DrKefka - "Attacking"? Interesting choice of words. Also interesting that you quoted something that wasn't actually said. Leaving out a relevant link, are you?10/20/2014 - 11:04am

quiknkold: ugh. I want to know why the hell Mozerella Sticks are 4 dollars at my works cafeteria...are they cooked in Truffle Oil?10/20/2014 - 10:41am

Neo_DrKefka: Anti-Gamergate supporter Robert Caruso attacks female GamerGate supporter by also attacking another cause she support which is the situation happening in Syia “LET SYRIANS SUFFER” https://archive.today/F14zZ https://archive.today/Wpz8S10/20/2014 - 10:18am

Neo_DrKefka: That is correct in an At-Will state you or the employer can part ways at any time. However Florida also has laws on the books about "Wrongful combinations against workers" http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/448.04510/20/2014 - 10:07am

james_fudge: he'd die if he couldn't talk about Wii U :)10/20/2014 - 9:16am

Michael Chandra: By the way, I am not saying Andrew should stop talking about Wii-U. I find it quite nice. :)10/20/2014 - 8:53am

Michael Chandra: 'How dare he ignore my wishes and my advice! I am his boss! I could have ordered him but I should be able to say it's advice rather than ordering him directly!'10/20/2014 - 8:52am

Michael Chandra: If GP goes "EZK, do not talk about X publicly for a week, we're preparing a big article on it" and he still tweets about X, they'd have a legitimate reason to be pissed.10/20/2014 - 8:52am

Michael Chandra: If GP tells Andrew "we'd kinda prefer it if you stopped talking about Wii-U for 1 week" and he'd tweet about it anyway, firing him for it would be idiotic.10/20/2014 - 8:51am

Michael Chandra: Legal right, sure. But that doesn't make it any less pathetic of an excuse.10/20/2014 - 8:50am

ZippyDSMlee: You mean right to fire states.10/20/2014 - 8:50am

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