13-year-old Pulls Knife on Teacher, Demands Money to Buy GTA
13-year-old Pulls Knife on Teacher, Demands Money to Buy GTA
May 29, 2008
The Associated Press is reporting that a 13-year-old middle school student in Framingham, Massachusetts menaced his teacher with a knife in an attempt to get money to purchase Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
From the AP report:
Police Lt. Paul Shastany says... the male student stayed behind after the other students had left the classroom, pulled the 11-inch knife and asked for $20. After [the teacher] refused, he lowered his demand to $1. The teacher took the knife from the student.
Shastany says the boy wanted to buy the video game "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" but his mother refused to give him the money, so he came up with an alternate plan.
Comments
Proof of game = violence? Hell no. Proof that this kid was really stupid? Hell yes!
Proof that violence precludes the game!
You've just proven on the internet, that your stupid
I'm with you. I'm 21 and I played all the GTA games growing up and I still know right from wrong. Fuck these parents and these kids blaming their actions on video games, when it is lack of parenting and lack of hobbies. Video Games should not be played for hours and hours on end. Get your kid in a recreational league or something productive.
i completely agree that kid was just stupid, not violent from playing games. he didn't even have the game, how could he have become violent because of it?
ya
Give me $20!
Give me $1...
Give me back my knife!
With thug attitude like that, he's going to be running the cell block in prison.
This remembers me another sad story of failure of a wannabe thug: the "Xbox Moron".
If these losers are the criminals created by games, I think games can´t create real criminals or mass murderers, or even a decent thief.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/
Sounds like a Get Smart routine.
Missed it by that much :D
Pretty amazing stuff. Of course, I remember a kid at my school getting in trouble for having drugs in his locker at right around the same age, and the first Grand Theft Auto wasn't even out yet! I'm also a bit surprised that he wanted San Andreas and not IV.
Correlation =/= Causation.
If he has to rob a teacher to get $20, I doubt he has a next-gen console to play IV on.
Gee, it's too bad Thomson's career is fucked, or he'd be hollering about this right now.
Sorry. Double-post.
Wow. What a freakin' moron. Instead of getting all upset about games, why don't we start sterilizing the lazy fucks who don't teach their kids not to steal...or to haggle.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
wait he only wanted 20 bucks . . . are we sure this isnt a "last minute excuse"
Just imagine how pissed he would've been after finding out he didn't factor in the potential sales tax or when they wouldn't let him buy it..
GTA: SA is $14.99 on Amazon.
So I guess he was going to pay cash to buy a game online?
Oh and $14.99 doesn't include the shipping does it?
Well you can see the good parenting here I guess. I dunno...can the kid be considered stupid? I mean the parent refused to give him money for this kind of game?...or maybe was it for "a" game in general she wouldn't give him any kind of money for.
I think this artical might point to good parenting and point to how no matter how good you try to be a parent. Kids will still get their hands on the games.
Seeing as he hadn't even played GTA yet I think this is actually proof that not all violent behavior is caused by games (not that I have any reason to believe much is at all).
Kid should be cutting lawns not teachers
What happened to good old fashioned shop lifting ?
They those new fangled security dohickeys that make shoplifted games (and some other goods) impossible to open. Back in my day we could steal all sorts of stuff and the shopkeepers were helpless to do anything about it, those were the days.
(Seriously though add another point to his stupidity)
Actually I think he's up to 3 stars of stupidity. Those "new fangled security dohickeys" are very easy to get around. I'm not about to post here how to do it, but since I'm in the tech sector I do know how to deal with RFID tech.
Honestly I don't know if the parents are to blame or this kid is just dumb. Right now I'm leaning toward this kid is just dumb because it sounds like the parents denied him an M rated game. Kudos to them for parenting. He could have picked up that knife from the kitchen so I'm not going to dock the parents points for that one. To be fair this sounds like a troubled teen who hopefully will get some counseling.
-Loudspeaker
"Volume helps to get a point across but sharp teeth are better."
He clearly isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer...
Yeah, but he did bring it with him....
I read this while taking a drink.
You owe me a new keyboard now Jack. :)
My bad.
Damn. That was funny.
LMAO
Mutha f*cka, learn to recycle cans! That can get you twenty bucks if you drink a lot of soda, and it's good for the environment!
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
So not only do videogames not lead to real-life violence, now we know that real life violence does not lead to videogames!
videogames do not lead to real-life violence ok
So not letting kids play games causes violence as well? The conundrum this will cause the politicians!
Jack Thompson is not happy... the kid didn´t kill nobody!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/
No, but he'd probably point to it as further evidence of their corrupting influence. Part of the reason he attributes video games as being behind the actions of Seung-Hui Cho and Steven Kazmierczak, even though they were clearly over 21, is because he believes that the people who played violent games as kids are now coming into adulthood and committing acts of violence based on the "conditioning" video games gave them (remember his comment about gamers being a "generation of Manchurian Candidates"?) He'd see this as only further proof of that.
On the other hand, it's just as likely to indicate that violent kids are interested in GTA...which isn't the order of progression that Jack is inclined to endorse.
That kid wasn´t even violent. Just retarded...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The cynical side of videogames (spanish only): http://thelostlevel.blogspot.com/
CURSE YOU VIDEO GAMES! *SHAKES FIST AT SKY* HOW DARE YOU FORCE CHILDREN TO HOLD PEOPLE AT KNIFE POINT AND DEMAND MONEY TO BUY YOUR VIOLENCE LAIDEN WARES!
capslock is fun :)
Um Where the fuck did the kid get a 13 inch knife in the first place, never mind the fact he probably couldn't of gotten the game on his own statistics say?
No Billy, you may not play Grand Theft Auto. That game is dangerous. Play with this thirty two inch samurai katana with a hidden poison dagger built into the handle and a special reinforced ceramic edge for superior cutting power instead. Don't forget to show your teacher, sport.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
Hmm gta4 has that shop at home knife show The Serrated Edge, maybe the kid already owned GTA4 and it brainwashed him into buying a big knife and then brainwashed him into buying the previous games in the series (by any means necessary). Presumably this brainwashing didn't affect me because I already own the previous games and have a predilection for big knives anyway.
Consider the "evidence", the kid didn't steal the game from a retailer, was this because of his fear of being caught (by people he may never see again rather than by someone he'd see every fucking weekday!!!) or evil brain manipulation by rockstar?
Let's not forget it may not be that the parent didn't want the kid to play GTA, it could simply be the parent didn't feel like buying a game for the brat.
Lord knows when I was a kid I didn't get the money to buy games often, it wasn't that my parents were uber-protective, it's that they were cheap (or didn't have the money).
Although to be fair, I'm reasonably sure my parents WOULD have noticed me carrying a freaking DAGGER to school.
Somehow I see it as being one of those big serrated carving knives you get with 10 other knives for $20 at the fair.
-- http://mallvillestory.blogspot.com
Quick! Someone call Jack! He needs to be all over this one.
Jack has already posted here, and odds are he gave the kid the knife.
岩「…Ace beats Jack」
Proof that lack of a violent video game causes crime.
Why $20? Did he already have the remaining balance for the $60 + tax game?
"You won't give me $20? Okay, how about you give me a dollar and I'll stick up 19 other teachers?"
Even if he had the money, he has a less than 1 in 5 chance of successfully purchasing the game anyway. Then there's the whole issue of playing it at home without Mom noticing (if she hasn't already set the parental controls, that is).
Methinks Junior didn't think his plan through very carefully.
Andrew Eisen
Edit: Oops. He was trying to buy San Andreas, not GTA IV. San Andreas goes for about $20 now so that makes a bit more sense.
San Andreas?
Damn you Gamestop, and your overpriced used games. I guess.
i'm suspect to a lie here, as they "claim" he wanted to buy GTA:SA.
but i honestly doubt its true that was the specific.
they like to twist a lot of details when making reports, since they have to have a "reason" for everything, i mean they never even retracted the "Alchohol is suspected to have been a factor" when my friend died in a truck accident, and was found to be 100% sober within hours of the press release.
stabbings and shootings are 90% of the time without question about "drugs", and theft among kids is always immediatly said to be for a game or something stupid.
so i'm not apt to buy the whole "he did it because of he wanted X game"
especially when its so badly outdated (and just bad) a game as GTA:SA.
specially since any idiot that desperate probably could've gotten it for pennies and food scrapings online.
its not exactly being held back... my GF hasn't even been able to sell off her 1st edition PS2 version of the game.
My god, not only did the kid drop his demand to two dollars, but the teacher took the knife away from. I don't think it's possible to be any more terrible at theft, maybe if the teacher then robbed him? Did he not perhaps think to ask his mom for the game after he got an A on a test or something? That's what I used to do if I really wanted something I would wait until I had proven that the game wouldn't be detrimental.
I'm also pretty sure he was using either a Chefs Knife or a a carving knife. Or maybe a bread knife, those do hurt if you accidently slice through a bagel.
"Reports indicate that the knife in question was actually a piece of paper torn out from the child's notebook. After taking the student's 'knife' away, the teacher tussled the child's hair and said, 'Oh you little scamp!' and then called the police."
:p
I love how he negotiated 99% down from his original offer. Reminds me of Peter Griffin trying to haggle. "$200! $15! $2000!"
Submitted by Roy - May 29, 2008 at 8:03 pm -0500
Proof that lack of a violent video game causes crime.
Hilarious!
*Adjust glasses*
Actually that'd be 95%.
*Pushes glasses up as they droop down*
Lesson one in mugging: don't mug someone you know, in an area that you live in, or show your face to them.
That kid is pathetic!. His parents must have never told him the art of negotiations.
did the kid try getting an allowance first?
Epic fail. He probably tried it on his gym teacher.
Submitted by Jack Thompson, Attorney - May 29, 2008 at 6:57 pm -0500
Really I see gamefaqs as too tame, I really see jack as someone more suited to the 'chans.
Jack Thompson posting = instant 500 topic!
lol i can see it now lawchan.org !!!! we are teh disbarred your xenu cannot save u lol
i love how Jack is the first to make childish name calling a common practise :)
as well as automatically assume every person who calls and threatens him is a gamer. but then again in his mind anyone whos played so much as a game of solitare is a gamer, so i guess in his world he is right.
as for no brains... then i'd assume he has none as well, as he has played games in the past has he not? and if anyone has played a game in the past then they are apt to become violent from pong! jacks not only fitting into his own stereotype, but he's just as prone to go nutzo!.....
in his case though i think "GTA made me do it" might actually work as a viable defense... not one that'll win his case, but one that would make sense for a change.
but last i checked he was a lawyer, and lawyers (especially bad ones like jack) tend to have threats shot at'em from those they prosicute or fail to defend.
on a side note... anyone notice how more and more gamers are becomming elected officials REAL fast suddenly? makes ya wonder whos got the voting power atm, don't it? :)
He has pissed of damn near everybody. Those callers could have also been hip-hop or Howard Stern fans. In short, Jack's only purpose in life is to amuse us with his ranting, and that is getting kinda old.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
This story sounds pretty fishy. Did he really think his teacher would just give him $20, he'd buy a video game, and that would be the end of it? Who tries to rob someone for a certain amount of money, and then lowers the requested amount of money on a whim? If everything in this story is true (big "if") then this kid is probably an idiot.
And even if it is true, depending on what system he wanted GTA:SA for, it wouldn't have cost him anywhere near $20. It's on Half.com right now for <$5 for PS2 and <$10 for both XBox and PC. Maybe that's why he was okay with lowering his demand to $1.
He was probably planning on buying it from Gamestop. A kid that stupid wouldn't think to shop online.
E. Zachary Knight
www.editorialgames.com
LOL n00b got pwnt by the law
Only $20? 11-inch knife?! Somethings not right here.
----
Papa Midnight
http://www.otakutimes.com
http://www.thesupersoldiers.com
It's funny how Jacko here likes to cling to crap like this as some sort of "proof" that games no doubt cause violence. If he had any brain, he'd realize that the issues at hand and the reason people act the way they do is far more complicated. But I guess it's too difficult a concept for the poor guy to grasp.
Does anyone else think it's a little bit weird that he used an 11-INCH knife? That's a pretty decent sized knife, like pretty dang big...
See what violent videogames do even when you don't play them?! Haha!!!
Don't you have more important things to worry about right now? Like how the fucking hell to save your career? Not that you can, but surely TRYING to save your hopeless career is much more important than proving yourself a moron around here. Why would you even spare a second posting on here instead on concentrating on that?
Really? Nothing more important to do huh?
Seriously?
You have to comment here?
Don't even have to wash the car or wash the dishes or something?
Submitted by Jack Thompson, Attorney - May 29, 2008 at 6:57 pm -0500
Al\so putting\ s\ashes i\n every\ comm\ent you\ mak\e is \counterproductive\.
I would guess it is the forums (rather trash) method of stripping out ' so no one can do:
'DELETE FROM COMMENTS
Sorry forum software, looks like something else between here and Jack has a trash SQL injection protection.
The \ in JT's comments after a punctuation, typically this one ---> ' <--- , comes from using a proxy to avoid an IP ban.
And here we thought he wouldn't know what a proxy is.
shows he can hardly live without this site.
Anything to spew I suppose.
Oh, and a real proxy wouldn't leave the telltale signs of poor programming. So, he's using a script kiddy junkware proxy he probably bought on one of his "stings". Or googled.
"Come on... Come on! One of these has to work.... If I can't get to Gamepolitics how am I suppose to make me feel better about myself by making juvenille comments then running away before people half my age point out the inconsistencies and absurdities that are my misguided view of life!"
At least the \'s help us ID the real deal
Doesn't anything think that his parents perhaps put him up to this? After all: San Andreas was hotly criticized for its "explicit" sexual material (even without Hot Coffee). If the kid just has an original xbox, I wouldn't put it past parents who heard about other GTA lawsuits (and obviously not their conlclusions...) and figured they could sue on the premise that "lust for the 'immoral' game GTA:SA provoked our angelic son to attempt robbery with a deadly weapon (just like GTA!)". Just like the man in NC (where I live) who recently cited GTA as an additional reason for his crimes (forgive my lack of detail, I know it was posted here)- GTA is a well known game, and the media and parents like to think that it is far worse than it truly is.
Oh, on a side note, if the real Jack Thompson did post here, I'd like to remind him that GTA is not ultraviolent- games like Ninja Gaiden are- and wish him luck in court, he'll need it.
The only thing this kid really needs is a one hell of a severe ass beatin.
SHOCKED AND APPALED.
You really think that's going to help? That stuff is what makes kids violent in the first place; they learn nothing but to beat up people who, in their eyes, are doing something wrong. Which can vary wildly.
And giving him a "time out" or telling him he did something "very wrong" wouldn't help either.
How did he get a goddamn eleven inch knife? That is the real question here.
-GRIZZAM PRIME(c)is property of the U.S. Marine Corp. Wetworks Dept., and also The Incredible Hulk-GRIZZAM PRIME is not to be associated with GRIZZAM 512 or any other GRIZZAM entity under penalty of law, so sayith ZARATHOS.
actually the question isn't where he got an 11 inch knife, as that honestly sounds about the size of commen butchers knife that can be found in just about any kitchen
the question is how he snuck said knife into school without getting caught
Chances are he just took it out of the kitchen when his mom wasn't looking and stashed it in his bag. If he could wedge it in a book or something, he could carry it around no problem. Really, it's damn easy to sneak a weapon into school if you're careful.
Not that I know anything about that...
Being 15, I know it's not too hard to get anything into a school.
Hell, I could get an m-16 to schools with a large enough backpack, and my schools on a freaking military base ( they only check for drivers license, then let you through, big whoop). There's even less at other schools, it's not like we go through a security check everyday.
i agree with these others, it's not that hard to get stuff into school...we used to wear take our huntin knives to school with us all the time (they were tons sharper than the crappy scalpels our science program had), of course i am in MT, we dont have as much of problems with crime in general as you bigger palces do, well, not violent crime anyways
That's gonna get him another star.
Great job, another kid fucks up and Jack Thompson and pals has more ammunition against video games.
This same "ammunition" can be used on ANY retail product. If he'd played the game then there'd be something to it, but he did this trying to acquire the game.
-Loudspeaker
"Volume helps to get a point across but sharp teeth are better."
I smell bullshit. This seems to be along the lines of the fake story about the kids playing Halo in a hotel and ordering hookers with a stolen credit card. Being from AP makes it a bit more credible but something stinks about this. Then again, maybe it is what it is. Could have used some more detail.
I was wondering how Jack got back in until I saw the post about proxy. How's GTA 4 btw? Son enjoying it? Found all the pigeons yet?
Oh well. After the Supreme Court is done with him he'll have to change his hand to Former Attourney. MMM CROW!!!
Jack, If you happen to read this, would you kindly point out my spelling and grammar errors. I love it when you do that. I makes you my slave.
what.. he pulled a knife to get the money for SAN ANDREAS???
yeah right absolute BS
san andreas... you can pick that up for like £5 now....
lol i love his second line ''After [the teacher] refused, he lowered his demand to $1''
man, if video games turn kids into criminals like this, i don't think we have anything to worry about...
I don't think much of this story either. Where's the name of the boy, or the school, or the teacher? The game is years old, the $20-changed-to-$1-dollar demand doesn't ring true, and the policeman quoted is a spokesman, not an arresting officer. I give this a day before it's revealed as a hoax.
Am I the only one who thinks that GP has got sloppy recently? (cf. British Tory MP who WASN'T slamming games, despite what the headline said). I reckon this will be another example.
Sorry, pressed "post" instead of "preview".
Like the GTA4 queue shooting that actually happened half-a-mile away at East Croydon station, this sounds like tabloid journo hacks making it up as they go along.
Could the knife do some damage or was the kid stupid enough to bring one of the things you eat dinner with?
Okay, how does a 13-year-old hide an 11-inch knife?
thats easy large book bag
what a utter tw@ he really is a noob, FUCK YOU JACK! and the kid is called "ARSES11" most likely. hat a dickheaded pile of shit and cock!
Dear Mr.Thomson,
L-O-L
you truely are amazing...and by amazing I mean amazingly immature and petty. You never cease to amaze and astonish with your silly insults and come backs. The only reason some "gamers" may threaten you is because a) you insult us as a gaming community and b) you happen to piss off the immature 8 year olds who shout things like this over XBL (X-Box Live since I'm sure you you might have thought it meant Extra Big Large) or they are the naturally aggressive type who happen to love video games. And Im sure "Jack you suck" was heard as "Jack please die in a fire k-thx" in Jack-o-gram hearing. So please do us a favor and have fun on June 4th ^_^
Also on this note...I wonder if Jack will turn into South Park's Al Gore and his Man-Bear-Pig after he is no longer a lawyer.
"My name is John Bruce "Jack" Thompson, former 1st ammandment expert, school shooting expert, video game violence expert and lawyer. Im here to talk to you children about a very important issue and danger facing our country today, and that is Man-Game-Slug. Half Man, Half Game, Half Slug. He only appears when you play Video Games and then will use his super powers to suck out your brain and replace it with a killers...Im super Cerial." ^_^
If the kid pulled a knife to rob his teacher and make him buy him some weed, the media probably wouldn't even touch it.
But thanks to JT, even if he got the 20 bucks he would have been carded anyway right?
Stupid kid.
I remember a kid in my school pulling a knife on a teacher. Of course, we barely had personal computers back then (TRS-80s) in school. I think he was motivated by the fact that he was failing. Or it could be that the POTENTIAL for GTA being created caused this incident. Damn you, GTA!