3. Mugging Stories
The press love nothing more than crimes that can be linked tenuously to Grand Theft Auto. The launch of GTA V had a number of stories about people getting mugged for their copy of the highly anticipated game. Obviously, stories like this will be used by some as proof that GTA turns people into criminals, but they totally ignore the fact that the people who did the mugging are probably one of lifes scumbags who saw an opportunity to make some quick cash. If it is popular, it has value, and those who cant buy it will feel like they have the right to take it from someone else. Rockstar or Grand Theft Auto did not invent mugging. Anyhow, here are some of the negative stories that were reported. On September 20th in Florida, Tommy Davis and Adele Jones (pictured above) mugged a mentally challenged man, Rohan Dawkins, for his $150 Collectors edition of GTA V. Davis and Jones mugged him in a parking lot and then unsuccessfully tried to return the game at a GameStop store. They were arrested and Davis admitted that they did it because he needed new tires for his car. They originally planned to catch a cracker (slang for robbing a white person) but spotted Dawkins instead. Dawkins was understandably upset, because he saved for months to buy the game, but after the story went viral, he was given a donated copy. So, it all turned out good in the end. On 21st September, another moron put his head above the parapet to show everybody what a useless human being he is. Zachary Burgess decided to steel a truck from a car park with a female passenger still inside the vehicle. When he realized his exit was blocked by a number of cars, his plan was to start ramming them.
On his arrest for theft of a motor vehicle, Hit-and-Run (9 counts), and kidnapping, he told police that he did it because he wanted to see what it was really like to play the video game Grand Theft Auto. This was the story that got the biggest newspaper coverage. At 1:20am on the night of the launch, a 23-year-old man was stabbed, hit with a brick and had his mobile phone, watch and copy of GTA V stolen in North London. A few days later, three teenagers, aged 15, 17 and 18 were arrested, but not before most of the national newspapers slanted the story to make it look like it had everything to do with the release of GTA V. Would the story have made the papers if they only took his phone and watch? And why did none of the papers question what were the parents of the 15 and 17 year old thinking when they let them wander the streets at 1.20am on a Thursday? The aim was to link it to GTA V while ignoring that the kids that did the mugging were just scumbags in the first place, who probably would have committed the crime regardless.