The lengths some people will go to!
From a US rag:
Xbox buyer is attacked at mall, robbed of new game system
Some people will do anything to get Microsoft's Xbox.
A 23-year-old Montclair man found that out just after he bought one of the season's most sought-after video game consoles at a Willowbrook Mall store, when he was assaulted by four young men who took off with it.
"This is the first incident we've had like that down there," said Detective Lt. John Reardon. The Police Department is looking for four young males who fled Willowbrook in a blue Honda Civic on Wednesday night.
The victim, who wished to be identified only as "Jack" lest anyone try to steal a replacement Xbox, said he was buying the $300 game system with Internet capabilities for himself at a FuncoLand store.
"I was in there getting a new Xbox, and there was some other guy in there who wanted it," Jack said. "He didn't have enough money, so I went up and got the last one."
As Jack walked to his car with his roommate, the man followed him and grabbed the Xbox out of his hand.
In the same moment, another male punched him in the back of the head a couple of times. The Xbox fell to the ground, someone snatched it, and four young men piled into the Honda, Jack said. He did not require medical treatment.
It was a particularly violent episode untypical at the mall, even during the holidays, police said. Pickpockets and shoplifters are common, as well as thefts from parked cars.
Demand for Xbox has been growing as the holidays draw near. A spokeswoman for Bizrate.com, a company that watches sales trends by monitoring 2,000 e-commerce Web sites, said that Xbox is second to Nintendo's GameCube as the most-searched-for toy or game product on the Web as of Thursday evening.
Xbox has ranked No. 1 on some individual Internet search engines, including Lycos and Yahoo. GameCube and Sony PlayStation 2 are its main competitors.
Although it costs $300, Xbox, like PlayStation, is also a DVD and CD player, and allows users to create new gaming worlds and to connect to the Internet for interactive play.
At stores locally, the Xbox has been flying off shelves.
The system is sold out at Toys "R" Us in Totowa, Best Buy in West Paterson, and The Wiz in Wayne. Representatives at each store said they expect to receive shipments soon.
On Thursday, KB Toys in West Paterson still had a handful of Xbox systems in stock. But employees didn't expect them to last long, despite the store's requirement that customers buy three games -- which cost about $50 apiece -- in order to get the game console.
"They go real quick," assistant manager Miranda Roberts said. "We have less than five [Xbox systems] left."
For Jack, an experienced gamer and college student, the assault was a minor setback. He plans to buy another Xbox to add to his collection, which already includes a Sony PlayStation, Sega DreamCast, GameCube, Sega Saturn, and a desktop computer.
"I'm planning on buying it again," Jack said. "But . . . I'm gonna get it online."
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Hand me my flamethrower... it's the one that says 'Bad Motherfucker'.
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GGRRRR!
