Grand Theft Auto’s Unexplained Myths

Grand Theft Auto’s Unexplained Myths

Every GTA hides secrets — rare and strange occurrences that would be right at home inside an episode of The X-Files. Some of them are scripted. Some aren’t. All of them end up logged and documented by players.

If you’ve never visited the GTA Myths Wiki, I highly recommend taking a gander today. While there are things everyone has heard about — like GTA V’s bigfoot, aliens, the jetpack — there are a bunch of other ones floating around, too. Not every myth has credible sourcing — some, quite frankly, sound fake as heck. Still, it’s interesting to read about, and particularly fascinating to watch people go out into their games and try to find the myth in question. Even more fascinating is when people actually mod their games to put the myth in there.

Every proven myth can be found here. While there are a ton of fantastical ones floating around, we’re going to focus on a few ones that are either actually true, or have some sort of video attached, and are not an intended easter egg (like say, this ghost girl in GTA V).

The Suicidal Photographers

Weirdly, you can watch a character drown themselves in San Andreas. People think it might be just a glitch, and if it is, it’s a rather eerie one.

Strange Mechanic

While this one has been patched out, it’s still fun to hear about. But basically, players could hire a mechanic in GTA Online. Two problems: the character could sometimes be aggressive toward the player, or worse, could drive past the player, refusing to actually stop and deliver the car. Sometimes, the mechanic could attack the player if the player tried to get the car back, and other times was known to straight up kill the player instead of delivering the car. Jeeze!

Suicidal Aeroplanes

Another San Andreas myth. Apparently, aeroplanes will often crash into buildings, if not right onto the player. The thing is, not only can the aeroplane often avoid the crash, there is never a pilot onboard. What?

Bermuda Triangle

While the Bermuda Triangle isn’t a real location in GTA, players started rumours that evoked it. The claim is this: if go you far enough into the ocean in GTA San Andreas or GTA V, your plane will inevitably crash. While people dispute whether or not this is true, the myth likely spread because of one detail: if you let your plane/vehicle sink, you’ll automatically be teleported elsewhere. Otherwise, one of the key elements of this myth is that if you go out far enough, your plane/vehicle will either explode, or you’ll lose control.

Ghost Vortex

A moving vortex, with no pilot. Can apparently chase the player sometimes. Strange.

Ghost Cars

Similar to the ghost vortex myth, various GTA games have been known to have cars that seemingly operate on their own, without a driver. While this video is of a more recent ghost car sighting, older games, such as San Andreas, are said to have this phenomenon too:

In [San Andreas], there is a variant of the Glendale car, called “glenshit” in the game’s internal files. This vehicle differs from the normal Glendale because all of its body panels, bumpers, and doors are dented. Its damages cannot be repaired by cheats or by visiting a Pay ‘N’ Spray. These damaged cars are nicknamed “beaters”.

Several of these beater Glendales spawn in the woods of Back O’ Beyond. However, they spawn on the side of a steep hill, which makes them slide to the bottom of the hill as soon as they spawn, making it appear as if they are driving by themselves. This phenomenon can be witnessed at any time in the location in Back O’ Beyond; It is unknown if this is a glitch, or if game developers implemented this on purpose. The exact location where these cars spawn is in Back O’ Beyond, just south of two horseshoe-shaped rocks.

Many fan-made videos show the cars whirring to life with their lights turning on and attempting to run down the player. While this happens, the car is immune to damage, and will not stop unless the player is killed, or the car is somehow damaged beyond driving.

Loch Ness Monster

While this one has been found untrue….

As many other myths, it started in 2005 when players reported seeing black lines in the water, or even the head an neck resembling the Spicer Photograph. The most common sighting area for this creature is Fisher’s Lagoon, north of Los Santos where the Rusty Wheelchair can be found and some of them also claimed to have seen this myth in south Los Santos. Other places where they said the monster could be found is in the San Fierro Bay, around the Gant Bridge, and in the Ghost Lake in Back ‘o’ Beyond. Players have said that they would put CJ in a boat and leave the game on all night (real life night). Then in the morning CJ would end up in the hospital, hinting that the Loch Ness Monster killed him, although it could be from either hunger, or an aeroplane falling on the player. Also players have said that once you touch the monster, CJ dies immediately. Rockstar has claimed multiple times that there is no Loch Ness Monster in the waters of San Andreas.

Players took matter into their own hands, and modded a crudely-made creature into the game:

Neat, right? There are a ton more, too. Check them out over at the GTA Myths Wiki here, and be sure to chime in with any of your favourite GTA myths in the comments too.


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