Police Blotter: He Smashed, She Smashed

Crime is a constant feature of video games writing. Somewhere, someone is doing something illicit with them — sometimes comically stupid but also potentially tragic. Games and consoles are currency, objects of dispute, sometimes even weapons themselves. Kotaku‘s Police Blotter is here to round up the latest in games crime.

He Sends a Laptop to the Hospital, You Send a Wii to the Morgue

KEY WEST, Fla. — A Key West man is in jail following a hardware smashing dispute whose victims included a laptop, Kindle, a Wii and an Xbox, reports The Key West Citizen [paywall http://keysnews.com/]. Police say the disturbance began when the man, a cook and his girlfriend started arguing over money (basically, that she was not earning any to pay their bills.) She said he broke her laptop. He said she trashed the Xbox (their description) Wii and Kindle in retaliation. He said he left to fetch police when she threatened to throw his bicycle from their balcony. She said he cut her with the glass from a broken bong “smoking pipe”. The man is in jail on domestic battery charges.

Come On and Take a Free Ride — and an Xbox

HARMONY, N.Y. — A woman here, upon discovering someone in her home who wasn’t supposed to be there, drove him home “because he did not have a ride,” according to a cop report. While the two wre gone, a second man burglarised her house, taking “an Xbox, two Xbox games, and a CD,” according to The Post-Journal of Jamestown, NY The two men got $US71 for the console at a local game store and spent the proceeds on heroin. Both are in jail.

Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe

LEXINGTON, S.C. — A guy needing money to get to New Mexico to “see his family”, set about financing the voyage in an unorthodox way — by stealing an Xbox 360 hard drive from a Walmart and selling it at a GameStop. An employee saw the shoplifting from start to finish, including the part where the accused went over to the men’s department and tore the drive loose from its packaging. He and an accomplice are in jail.

Baby Dead in Reprisal Killing Over PlayStation Theft

CHICAGO — A Chicago man is facing first-degree murder charges after a revenge shooting over a stolen PlayStation and drugs killed an infant as her diaper was being changed. Chicago police say Koman Willis went looking for Johnathan Watkins, the baby’s father, after Watkins allegedly stole the console and drugs from the home of Willis’ mother. Discovering Watkins in a parked car, he opened fire; inside Watkins was changing his daughter’s diaper. He was wounded in the shooting, which happened in March. Willis, who had been wanted by police since then, surrendered on Saturday. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Wii Remote Shoplifter Shot Dead After Police Struggle

ARLINGTON, Texas — In January, police shot dead a man suspected of shoplifting a Wii remote from a target near Tarrant County College’s Southeast Campus. Police in Grand Prairie, Texas, fought the release of documents related to the case. But an investigation says the suspect, 22-year-old Jordan Ross Hatcher, was a former Marine who physically overpowered two loss prevention officers at the Target and bloodied a Grand Prairie cop. Hatcher, says the report, continued to run even while being Tasered, snapping the devices wires. Later, on the college’s campus, Hatcher apparently took hold of an officer’s Taser and fearing for his life and others, an unnamed officer shot him multiple times in the chest. [The Collegian, Tarrant County College]