Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in Xbox-equipped Van "Stolen" from Everclear

Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in Xbox-equipped Van "Stolen" from Everclear

September 1, 2008

He may have lost out on the Republican party's vice presidential nod, but Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty recently had a memorable ride in an Xbox-equipped van inadvertently stolen from the band Everclear.

As GamePolitics has previously reported, Gov. Pawlenty signed Minnesota's 2006 "fine the buyer" video game law into effect. The measure was later deemed unconstitutional by a pair of federal courts.

As reported by TwinCities.com:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty spent Sunday riding around Pennsylvania in a stolen van. The theft was inadvertent; his Keystone State driver was told to pick up the keys to the vehicle in which he was to shepherd the governor at the Holiday Inn in Allentown, Pa.

 

"He did exactly what he was told, except it was the wrong Holiday Inn and the wrong van," said Pawlenty... The van the driver picked up was a tricked-out touring vehicle, complete with an LCD video screen, an Xbox and video games and an iPod-ready, six-speaker stereo system.

The van retrieved by Pawlenty's driver was full of beer cans and had been used to to transport Everclear to their hotel. Ironically, the band was enroute to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

When the driver mistakenly showed up at Everclear's hotel, he was given the keys to the van by front desk personnel. Later, when the van turned up missing, owner Sharky Laguana reported it to local police as stolen. When the mystery was finally solved, Laguana said:

I've had a lot of crazy things happen in our vans. I don't know that this is even the craziest thing that's happened in our vans. ... This is the funnest thing...

GP: Actually, the funniest thing would have been for the police to spot the "stolen" van and perform a takedown on its occupants.

Comments

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

I will buy you a new Van

Perfect, shiny and new ;)

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

That is funny

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

 The scandal over any police action would have been sooo delicious! Yum!

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

The fact that the band was going to a democratic convention really makes this story funny.

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

 Isnt this actually GRAND THEFT AUTO?

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

I don't know which is more ironic, that Pawlenty was driven around in an Xbox-equipped van, or that Everclear themselves were going to use said van that Pawlenty was in to go to the DNC!  Rich, rich irony!

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

...holy crap...ummmm you sir win teh internets.

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

So what's going to be the legal fallout of all this? It happened because of a series of honest mistakes, after all.

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

My bet would be that the band wouldn't choose to press charges over an honest mistake, either because it was an honest mistake or because no band wants to look like douches over this.

 

If they DID press charges, I think it'd either be dismissed or they wouldn't get much. 

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in
Diong Grand Theft Audo in real life is much more dangerous than playing Grand Theft Auto in a Videogame. IT just shows that some Politicians are just crazy when they themselves can't distinguish fantasy from reality. so funny.
Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

"Actually, the funniest thing would have been for the police to spot the "stolen" van and perform a takedown on its occupants."

That would have been the most winningest win ever.  As it is, the Everclear-DNC thing is pretty hilarious.

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

Wow to see this makes me laugh, Im from Allentown and saw them perform at CrocRock just 2weeks ago and now to hear how this all happend just after I saw them...lol

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

I'm all for freedom of ttnet vitamin speech and allowing rent a car game makers to put whatever they want in games, but there's one thing about this app that has me scratching my head.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but from araç kiralama the previous article araba kiralama on this I gathered that players can use Google maps in-game to find the other (real-life?) dealers in their area.  If this is the case, has travesti anyone considered what's stopping someone from using this app to actually move drugs between hands for reals?

But majority araba kiralama of their outrage araç kiralama stems from what it could DO TO children, not the content itself.  Talk to one of these people and you'll find they don't think any books kiralık araba should be banned from children.  Mention American Psycho and they talk about kiralık araç the redeeming value of using imagination to construct a story.  Reading, no matter what the content, is largely viewed as a consequenceless activity for people of any age.  The reason why I mention American Psycho is because of the content itself.  Gaming never has and likely never will have any scenes where someone has sex with a severed head.  Not gonna happen.  Yet despite this, they'll fight tooth and nail to protect their children from two boys kissing in Bully but whatever they read is harmless... yeah.

The entire arguement is kiralık oto based upon a social normality inflicted by luddites who can't figure out the controls for Halo so it's frightening and terrifying and obviously the cause of youth violence on the rise even though, in reality, it's in decline (which is actually a HUGE suprise given minibüs kiralama the economies status).  In  a perfect world, we would have parents that actually parent.  The idea of sales restrictions on media on oto kiralama any form to accomidate parental unwillingness to get involved with their child's life is the real problem to me.  Here I am, 32 years old, and being held up at a self-scan rent a car needing to show ID before I can buy a $10 M rated game all because Soccer Momthra can't be bothered to look at the crap Billy Genericallystupidson does in his free time.  It's too hard for her, so I have to suffer?

Re: Game-Legislating Minnesota Guv Goes for Joyride in

Thanks good job;

Btw, I think Atari and Midway will drop out too, but mostly travesti because  these guys have done nothing travesti or little and need to start saving costs. and dizi izle

YES.

Now I don't have to get off my ass for the important shit anymore!

Whats next, ordering pizza from Xbox live?

Wait... I think that sounds like a good idea.

But I think voting should MAKE you get off your ass, and see outside or a second while you go vote. I mean, your picking the president of the United States of America for God's Sake... least you can do is drive down there and punch out a card.

GamePolitics ShoutBox

Posted 11/08/09 at 09:02am
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DarkSaber: Oh for gods sake, the Gearbox pres is gobbing off about Valve again
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JDKJ: @DS: If he had added the line about "or hiring illegals aliens under the table to work as nannies," it would have been a completely perfect descripition. And, yes, it's about the same difference between a six and a half-dozen.
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DarkSaber: My god, that description makes them sound almost Republican. Still what did you expect, Obama is only marginally more left than republicans.
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Austin_Lewis: Health insurance, brought to you by the same kind of bureacrats who couldn't, in timely fashion, investigate the comments of any of the men Obama appointed Czars. Or their past. Or their history of not paying taxes.
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Austin_Lewis: Yes, and what a piece of crap it was. Arresting and fining people just because they don't make a personal choice to buy healh insurance, creating over a hundred new bureacracies, and worse.
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JDKJ: BREAKING: In a photo-finish at the wire, House passes health care reform bill. Relatedly, in a fit of pique, Austin Lewis kicks innocent dog.
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JDKJ: Which could be explained by both (a) and (b).
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Posted 11/07/09 at 10:48am
JDKJ: And that even if he was begging not to get cut loose, he was apparently a real good candidate for being cut loose, anyway.
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JDKJ: @chada: And while Kennedy once noted that there's usually more than enough blame for everyone to get a slice, the possibility that the Army was unwilling to cut loose someone who was asking to get cut loose could be a factor.
Posted 11/07/09 at 10:07am
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