Topic: People who steal game consoles (or anything, really) are dumb.

[JonLeung]

I caught the morning news, and supposedly two guys went to a Best Buy around here.  They grabbed an Xbox (that's what the story said, anyway) and walked out with it.  When two employees (not sure why they felt a need to specify that they were female) approached them when they clearly didn't intend on paying for it, and the employees got pepper-sprayed.  The Xbox-nabbers were caught on camera and someone managed to get down their license plate number as they got away.

Stealing an Xbox?  WTF.  I would assume that they just said that for the news story, more likely it was an Xbox 360 specifically, but I find this an odd thing to steal after this last holiday season.  Why not a Wii or a PS3?  Xbox 360 is SO last year's news.  Maybe the Wii and PS3 weren't available at that store (you'd think there'd be a couple PS3s gathering dust) and they felt like nabbing SOMEthing.

Next of all, stealing is stupid anyway.

(Yes, I confess to taking $200 from a guy from Hong Kong who was staying with my family for a few months for school.  He had it in a small unlocked safe-type box that he kept in plain sight in the guest room.  I figured he had lots of money in there that he wouldn't mind if $20 was missing.  Next thing I knew I took $200.  He was from a kinda rich family apparently and didn't accuse me when I ran into him a couple years later in university but it still wasn't right and I confess it every time theft comes up as a topic.)

Personal preference against Xboxes aside, it seems like a dumb thing to do for any bit of electronics.  Not as bad as a few years back when someone drove a car right into a Toys R Us only to jump in and grab a single PS2 (just one, supposedly no controllers or games while they were already at it, the story goes) and then driving out of there.

I just felt like ranting.  I never hear about any cool bank heists; people seem to just want to grab one little thing.

Maybe the news just want to make gamers seem like criminal-types.  Thanks a lot.  At least I don't recall any stories about people stealing Nintendo products...yet.

[KDR_11k]

Kids these days have no ambition. Why, in MY days we stole entire countries and wouldn't give them back until the entire Allied and Soviet force conquered our capital!

[couchmonkey]

I hear bank heists are quite common, but they don't turn out to be that cool most of the time, so I guess they don't make the news as much.  Probably the banks are prepared for it.

I do not condone the cool crime of robbery, but I stole two marbles one time, and I think I stole a few dollars from my dad when I was little.  But stealing that stuff just made me feel guilty, I think I returned most of the money, and I think I gave away the marbles at some time.  Oh, I also stole a cane from an opened "Master Splinter" TMNT toy, because I had lost the cool hidden sword part from my own toy.  I kept that one.

[oohhboy]

Apparently, people here in New Zealand like to steal cold and flu meds. By ramming cars through shop fronts. We have problems.

[Smash_Brother]

My grandfather (who I never met, sadly) had a saying...

"If you're going to steal, steal at least a million dollars. That way, you're not a thief, you're a gentleman."

[Ian Sane]

If I was going to steal something I would co-ordinate with my brother.  He works for Brinks.  He routinely handles MILLIONS of dollars on a daily basis.  He can give me his route and tell me when his partner is the really fat guy that anyone could rob.  He tells me that Brinks guards are only armed to protect themselves and in the event of a robbery the standard procedure is to let the money go and not risk personaly safety.  You shoot if the crooks try to hurt you but you don't shoot a guy running down the street with the money.

The reason I don't do it is that I don't want to be stuck hiding in foreign countries and spend my life on the lam.  If I'm a millionare I want to be able to live in North America and relax.  I also think stealing is wrong but if I didn't it would be entirely because of the other reason.

[JonLeung]

I did hear on the Internet of kids stealing GBAs and DSes at school.  I never had a Game Boy until Pokémon, but I almost lost a Game & Watch in elementary.

If I was a kid and lost a Game Boy with a Pokémon cartridge in it, or had it stolen, I'd bawl my eyes out for days, maybe weeks!  Even worse would be if you knew who stole it and by the time the teachers or parents can do anything about it, it's already damaged beyond repair.

Heck, even now if something like that happened to any of my Pokémon saves, I'd be pretty upset...hundreds of hours spent on a game that is stolen/lost/damaged sucks.

[vudu]

Quote
Originally posted by: KDR_11k
Kids these days have no ambition. Why, in MY days we stole entire countries and wouldn't give them back until the entire Allied and Soviet force conquered our capital!

Quote of the year.  2007 is off to a slow start.

I stole a MicroMachine once (from the son of family friends, not a store).  It was yellow and had a big (relatively speaking) engine coming out the hood.

[JonLeung]

Since we're not talking specifically about game consoles anymore, maybe a mod should move this to General Chat since this seems like a good topic to confess our thefts in.

[UncleBob]

So...

who steals music and video games from the internets?

[Sir_Stabbalot]

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
So...

who steals music and video games from the internets?

That's not theft, that's copyright infringement. You don't actually take anything from anyone as you can't steal intellectual property.

[UltimatePartyBear]

The internets can't own property anyway, so it's impossible to steal from them at all.

[WuTangTurtle]

Quote
Originally posted by: JonLeung
I did hear on the Internet of kids stealing GBAs and DSes at school.  I never had a Game Boy until Pokémon, but I almost lost a Game & Watch in elementary.

If I was a kid and lost a Game Boy with a Pokémon cartridge in it, or had it stolen, I'd bawl my eyes out for days, maybe weeks!  Even worse would be if you knew who stole it and by the time the teachers or parents can do anything about it, it's already damaged beyond repair.

Heck, even now if something like that happened to any of my Pokémon saves, I'd be pretty upset...hundreds of hours spent on a game that is stolen/lost/damaged sucks.

I was working at my parents resturant and it was slow and only one old couple about 40-50 yrs old came in.  I set down my GBC with Pokemon Blue in it and serviced them.  When they left my GBC was missing...luckily my Dad was cool enough to replace it for me since I worked there pretty much all year long without really getting paid for it.  It still sucked though, I put in a $hit load of time into the game at the time as it was still my first run through of the game but finally on my new GBC (Up till then i was playing it on the old GB).

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I don't steal cuz I love seeing robbers and potential robbers get busted, humiliated, or their ass kicked on video.

I don't want to be the one getting busted, humiliated, or my ass kicked.  On video.

Yes, I watch those police videos shows.

[Ian Sane]

"If I was a kid and lost a Game Boy with a Pokémon cartridge in it, or had it stolen, I'd bawl my eyes out for days, maybe weeks! Even worse would be if you knew who stole it and by the time the teachers or parents can do anything about it, it's already damaged beyond repair."

At least when you're a kid you can beat up the kid that stole your Gameboy.  When you're an adult they have all this annoying law stuff.  So if you punch out someone who has it coming you can get arrested for assualt.  Being a grown up sucks... except for having money, being able to drive a car, being able to eat cookies for dinner and all sorts of other things your parents frowned on because it was fun, and boobs.

[denjet78]

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"If I was a kid and lost a Game Boy with a Pokémon cartridge in it, or had it stolen, I'd bawl my eyes out for days, maybe weeks! Even worse would be if you knew who stole it and by the time the teachers or parents can do anything about it, it's already damaged beyond repair."

At least when you're a kid you can beat up the kid that stole your Gameboy.  When you're an adult they have all this annoying law stuff.  So if you punch out someone who has it coming you can get arrested for assualt.  Being a grown up sucks... except for having money, being able to drive a car, being able to eat cookies for dinner and all sorts of other things your parents frowned on because it was fun, and boobs.

Actually, today you'd probably be arrested and charged with a terrorist activity if you did that. The whole world has gone completely nuts when it comes to kids. They seem to need to be WAY overprotected. The first jerk that Bush appointed to the Supreme Court upheld a charge against a girl, whom they held in a cell for 8 hours, for eating A (as in a single one) french fry on a subway platform in New York. Apparently it's evil for a child to eat in public. However, during the incident it was reported that there were several adults eating on the platform as well but none of them were arrested.

Soon children are going to be kept in little white boxes controlled by computo-nannies in order to protect them from themselves as well as everything else in the universe until they turn 18 at which point they'll be thrown out into the world and expected to adjust.

Sorry for the rant it's just... GEEZE are these people idiots! And these are the same people who want to ban video games because they can warp your fragile little mind. Believe me, my mind was warped way more by my parents than any video game could ever hope to achieve.

[NWR_pap64]

Quote
Originally posted by: Smash_Brother
My grandfather (who I never met, sadly) had a saying...

"If you're going to steal, steal at least a million dollars. That way, you're not a thief, you're a gentleman."

I never met any of my grandfathers either...but I don't understand what that means.

If anything, stealing a million dollars makes you a master thief.

[Sir_Stabbalot]

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78

Quote
Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"If I was a kid and lost a Game Boy with a Pokémon cartridge in it, or had it stolen, I'd bawl my eyes out for days, maybe weeks! Even worse would be if you knew who stole it and by the time the teachers or parents can do anything about it, it's already damaged beyond repair."

At least when you're a kid you can beat up the kid that stole your Gameboy.  When you're an adult they have all this annoying law stuff.  So if you punch out someone who has it coming you can get arrested for assualt.  Being a grown up sucks... except for having money, being able to drive a car, being able to eat cookies for dinner and all sorts of other things your parents frowned on because it was fun, and boobs.

Actually, today you'd probably be arrested and charged with a terrorist activity if you did that. The whole world has gone completely nuts when it comes to kids. They seem to need to be WAY overprotected. The first jerk that Bush appointed to the Supreme Court upheld a charge against a girl, whom they held in a cell for 8 hours, for eating A (as in a single one) french fry on a subway platform in New York. Apparently it's evil for a child to eat in public. However, during the incident it was reported that there were several adults eating on the platform as well but none of them were arrested.

Soon children are going to be kept in little white boxes controlled by computo-nannies in order to protect them from themselves as well as everything else in the universe until they turn 18 at which point they'll be thrown out into the world and expected to adjust.

Sorry for the rant it's just... GEEZE are these people idiots! And these are the same people who want to ban video games because they can warp your fragile little mind. Believe me, my mind was warped way more by my parents than any video game could ever hope to achieve.

It seems like these days child raising has no middle ground. Parents are either super-overprotective or let their kids do anything they want. Kids need exposure to the outside world, but at the same times parents are suppost to be authority figures, not friends.

[UncleBob]

Quote
Originally posted by: Sir_Stabbalot

Quote
Originally posted by: UncleBob
So...

who steals music and video games from the internets?

That's not theft, that's copyright infringement. You don't actually take anything from anyone as you can't steal intellectual property.

You say tomato, I say tomato...

[Smash_Brother]

Quote
Originally posted by: pap64
If anything, stealing a million dollars makes you a master thief.

Well, yeah, but the point is that stealing massive amounts of money is the act of the upper-class elite, like how politicians can pull that sort of thing off and still get away with calling themselves "gentlemen".

[JonLeung]

I don't know if you'd be called an upper-class gentleman necessarily, though because you'd have to be smarter to pull of a few big heists instead of being a petty street mugger, there's probably the assumption that you'd be more educated and daring rather than thuggish and desperate.

Plus, like I said, successful heists seem so rare now, so if they ever could happen again, it'd certainly be a story.

I think Carmen Sandiego has the potential to be a really hot character; just because the film that might have starred Catherine Zeta-Jones never got through to production doesn't mean they couldn't try again.

I guess I'm changing my tone from when I said stealing is stupid.  Well, okay, it always is, but there's plain stupidity, and then there's stupidity with class.

[Sessha]

How many actual smart thieves are there?  I mean I know every thief thinks they are smart.  It just seems that most of them get a very distingushing mark that sets them apart from the crowd.  A gold tooth, a mom tattoo across their forehead.    

And most crimes are pulled off with so little style.  Where are the good old days, when a bank robber wore a Nixon mask and really cased the joint?  I've never stole anything, although it would be really stupid if I did.  The only asian person in a whole community, I think (I'm not sure) I would get identified pretty quickly.

[Ceric]

To make people feel better and for the thrill of it someone needs to know.  Its a temptation that is hard to resist.  People like credit for there work even though it be better if they didn't have it some cases.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Quote
Originally posted by: denjet78

Actually, today you'd probably be arrested and charged with a terrorist activity if you did that. The whole world has gone completely nuts when it comes to kids. They seem to need to be WAY overprotected. The first jerk that Bush appointed to the Supreme Court upheld a charge against a girl, whom they held in a cell for 8 hours, for eating A (as in a single one) french fry on a subway platform in New York. Apparently it's evil for a child to eat in public. However, during the incident it was reported that there were several adults eating on the platform as well but none of them were arrested.

Actually the first district court upheld the charge long before Roberts and all Justice Roberts did was state the law was not unconstitutional. It was not a statement whether the law was right or not (it was a stupid law), and in fact the law was changed shortly after. Not sure how a strict constitutionalist makes someone an "idiot" but the point is that it was the cities stupid policy that made it wrong and it was their job to fix it, not the judges. Heck even People for the American Way didn't challenge him.

BTW this is his full opinion on the case

Quote
No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation. A twelve-year-old girl was arrested, searched, and handcuffed. Her shoelaces were removed, and she was transported in the windowless rear compartment of a police vehicle to a juvenile processing center, where she was booked, fingerprinted, and detained until released to her mother some three hours later — all for eating a single french fry in a Metrorail station. The child was frightened, embarrassed, and crying throughout the ordeal. The district court described the policies that led to her arrest as “foolish,” and indeed the policies were changed after those responsible endured the sort of publicity reserved for adults who make young girls cry. The question before us, however, is not whether these policies were a bad idea, but whether they violated the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution. Like the district court, we conclude that they did not, and accordingly we affirm.

ANWAY, I think Shyguy is right, this is a pretty lame thread .

[ShyGuy]

Agree with what VGRevolution said, but this thread seems to be teetering on the edge of the great PHAIL chasm.