A man purchasing two used Grand Theft Auto titles from a store in Gloucestershire, England, over the weekend got more than he bargained for, to the tune of four tablets worth of the drug ecstasy. On the black market, that’s what would be called making your money back and then some.
Richard Thornhill purchased two used Grand Theft Auto titles from a Gamestation store in Cheltenham on Sunday. Upon opening one of the game boxes, a cling-film packet dropped from between the pages of the game manual containing four ecstasy pills, which he promptly brought to the local police station. Thornhill isn’t too keen to think about what could have happened if his 12-year-old son or 16-year-old daughter had found the pills.
“I have two children and my son plays Xbox all the time. He could easily have opened the box and found them. I dread to think what the consequences would have been if he had. He is only 12. He could have died.”
Of course any 12-year-old should know not to eat random pills they find inside video game boxes, but that’s beside the point. The point (that isn’t nearly as important, in all honesty) being driven home is that Gamestation sold a man a video game with psychedelic drugs inside it. How does that happen? Gamestation said:
“We have rigorous procedures for accepting pre-owned titles and checking them before they are put back on sale. We have launched an immediate investigation and we will work closely with police to find out what happened in this instance.”
Of course, no one’s actually discussing why the father was buying a game that’s equivalent of an R-rated game for his teenage daughter or pre-teen son. Heaven forbid. However, anyone who has ever traded in a game at GameStop knows full well that they never, ever check the game manuals. One could theoretically print out a bunch of porn from the internet, wrap the game manual’s cover around it, trade in their used copy of Animal Crossing, and then wait for the headlines to appear. Not that I am suggesting anyone try that, of course.
Actually, I take that back. I am totally suggesting someone try that.*
Somewhere in Gloucestershire a raver is completely kicking themselves right now.