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April 9th, 2009, 07:21 GMT · By

Man Finds Ecstasy Tablets in Used Grand Theft Auto Box

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Ecstasy pills were found in a pre-owned GTA box
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The Grand Theft Auto franchise has been linked to many controversies surrounding violence and illegal behavior by children or grown-ups, but it doesn’t deserve much of the bad press it has been getting over the years.

Now, it seems that one more thing can be pinned to Rockstar's game franchise, as a British man, who bought two used Grand Theft Auto games, found four ecstasy tablets in the manual of one game. He was quite shocked that, after having bought them from his neighborhood's GameStation store for his children, he opened one of the boxes to check the manual and instead received the illegal drugs.

“When I opened the box up, the cling film wrap fell out. I could not believe it. 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. It was a pre-used game, but that should not make a difference. My wife is beside herself over this because she keeps thinking about what could have happened and so do I.”

He took the drugs to the Police, which presume that the tablets are indeed ecstasy, and is now working together with GameStation employees in order to find out who brought the game in. A GameStation representative had this to say, “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. It would be inappropriate to comment further until the police investigation is complete.”

All in all, a pretty big blunder on behalf of GameStation, which didn't even bother to flick through the manual at least for a couple of seconds. Hopefully, people who buy used games will actually get what they paid for and nothing extra of the illegal kind. 

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: Polo69 on 09 Apr 2009, 08:05 UTC reply to this comment

Fully understand the issues raised here but nobody appears to have any issue with this guy buying an 18 rated game for his 12 year old!

Whats the point in age ratings if the parents are going to just buy the game without paying them any attention. Smacks of the console being used as a baby sitter again. The game industry just dont seem to be able to win. The age rating is there for a reason, GTA is not suitable for children and is a game for adults.


Comment #2 by: AlexC on 09 Apr 2009, 11:38 UTC reply to this comment

He is only 12 >> Friends, it's a MATURE rated game. He's afraid of ecstasy pills yet he's letting his 12 year old kid play a mass murdering, law-breaking, police killing, cheating, unscrupulous main character. Is it just me or are they shifting the fault in a wrong direction? Once again they are openly attacking games when they should realize that it isn't the games' fault... it's the parents!


Comment #3 by: Gazza on 14 Apr 2009, 23:23 UTC reply to this comment

I totally agree with Polo & Alex, yes it was bad what they found, but at the end of the day it is an adults game designed for adults - not children!!

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