Chinese man kidnaps himself for Wii ransom

Davey Winder
Saturday, 02 August 2008 18:39

Your IT - Entertainment

Just how far would you go to get hold of a Nintendo Wii? One chap in China thought that arranging his own kidnapping was the obvious route to gaming glory. It could have been worse, people have been killed over the Xbox...

Strange but true: the China Daily newspaper is reporting that a young man named Yang has been detained by the Shangqiu police in the Henan province of China after faking his own abduction.

OK, in and of itself this is an unusual crime but not altogether unique. Apart from one small detail involving the ransom. You see Yang wanted a Nintendo Wii, but Yang could not afford one.

So he is alleged to have conspired with two men, known only as Zhou and Pan and both also arrested, to have organised his own fake kidnapping in order to fill the gaming gap in his life. The 10,000 Yuan ransom (AUD $1570) would have been plenty to pay off his accomplices and leave some over for a Wii with additional peripherals and games.

The victims were the parents of Yang, who had earlier refused to buy him the Wii when he asked for one. All three men were arrested while withdrawing the ransom money from an ATM.

As the Destructoid site wryly observes "Piracy has gotten so bad in China that people are now stealing themselves."

Of course, it could have been worse, it could have been an Xbox. Now people have gone and gotten themselves killed over the Xbox.

Sky News reported that a 27 year old Philadelphia man killed his 17 month old daughter when she unplugged the console during game play.

Tyrone Spellman was convicted of third-degree murder and child endangerment (well I guess murder counts as being dangerous) after he cracked the little girls skull several times in his rage...