Jun 26, 2008 7:30 pm US/Eastern
'Grand Theft Auto'-Inspired Crime Spree Rocks L.I.
Nassau County Cops: 5 Teens Admit Modeling Bat- & Crowbar-Wielding Romp After Wildly Popular Videogame
Reporting
Lou Young
QUEENS (CBS) ―
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Picture of 'Grand Theft Auto IV' video games taken on April 28, 2008 in Paris, on the eve of its world release.
Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images
It's one of the most popular -- and violent -- videogames on the planet.
Now, some Long Island teenagers stand accused of acting out scenes from the "Grand Theft Auto" games. As a result, they are spending part of their summer vacation behind bars.
A guy with a fascinating hairdo is the eldest of the five teenagers arrested Thursday morning for imitating the violent videogame on the streets of Nassau County.
Steve Attard, 18, allegedly joined two others, Dylan Laird and Samuel Phillip, and two other younger teens in a bat- and crowbar-wielding romp along Stewart Avenue in Garden City, thinking perhaps that it looked a bit like "Liberty City," the fictional setting from the wildly popular and infamous "Grand Theft Auto IV."
Detectives tell CBS 2 HD that the teenagers admitted as much during questioning.
"They decided to do some street robberies, emulating the popular fictional character Nike Bellic from the Grand Theft Auto videogame," Det. Lt. Ray Cotay said.
The spree began around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in neighboring Hyde Park, and was over by 1:45 a.m. Thursday. The boys were apparently about to take their real-life conversion of Grand Theft Auto to the next level when Garden City Police officers pulled the plug.
"They were proceeding south, gathering their weapons," Cotay said. "That's when they decided they needed a vehicle, because they were getting tired of walking, so they were gonna carjack someone."
The youngest suspect is 14-year-old. Four of them are from New Hyde Park; the fifth was visiting from Massachusetts.
Police are asking parents to keep track of what their children are watching on television and on DVD, and what they are playing on game consoles. They also want parents to keep track of what time their children get home because a lot of the alleged violence in the Garden City crime spree happened after midnight.
A major commercial and critical success, Grand Theft Auto IV broke sales records by selling about 3.6 million units on its first day of release and grossing more than $500 million in its first week.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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