A New York man got two charges after a car chase with cops; He thought he could outrun police because he did it in the video game Grand Theft Auto.
Tyrone McMillan was taken into custody last year after leading police on a car chase when officers attempted to pull him over for a parole violation. After slamming into two cars, McMillan told police that he thought he could outrun them because he played games from Rockstar’s controversial Grand Theft Auto franchise.
McMillan, in his 30s, apparently thought that his gaming skills translated to the real world. His experience navigating the fictional streets of San Andreas and Vice City with a PlayStation 2 controller led to a 55-minute real-life car chase, part of which had his girlfriend’s 11-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old cousin in the backseat. The girls leapt from the moving car while it was turning onto a highway.
A court judge slapped him with two concurrent seven-year jail terms and 10 year parole afterwards.
This isn’t the first time Rockstar’s top-selling franchise has been part of a criminal case. Devin Moore stands trial for the slayings of three Alabama police officers, an act which prosecuting attorneys say was influenced by playing Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
It’s amazing how some people are easily influenced by video games and how they start thinking they can take what they’re doing in the game with them into real life.
I can’t deny I get some funny thoughts too sometimes, but not in the sense that I feel I can do certain things, but more like imagining how it would be if I did them.
For example, these days, influenced by playing a lot of “The Godfather“, I just imagine how it would be if I did all the stuff in the game in real life, but well, I’m fully aware that it’s just a game and that it stops when I turn off the game console.
Some people obviously don’t make that distinction…
[Source: GameSpot]