Look, we’ve all been there — after a few hours playing a game like Grand Theft Auto, it’s hard to separate reality from video game. Once I stopped playing, got in my car to make a food run, and almost ran down people on the sidewalk for fun. True story.
David Helens got so deep into gameplay he thought his friend was shot — so he called the cops. The 25-year-old from the UK called a 999 dispatcher and reported his friend Max had been shot in the chest and was bleeding badly. He didn’t stop there.
But Helens went on for 12 minutes describing the horror, which became worse when he himself began to scream. He claimed to be himself in the throes of an attack by an unknown assailant.
The dispatcher sent two ambulances to Helens’ house. What the ambulance personnel found was zero dead bodies, zero injuries and one apparent nincompoop.
Helens was arrested and had his day in court. His lawyer claims he has “zero recollection” of the event. She said in his defense “It would appear that the phone call made to the emergency services coincided with him playing a violent shooting game on his computer. He tells me that he has very little recollection of the phone call.” What’s he going to say? Yes, I did it. I was in a GTA and Mountain Dew haze?
Helens pleaded guilty and received 12 months of community service. He must perform 120 hours work, all are unpaid, and will be supervised as to his behavior for 18 month. So no beating up random people on the street or car jacking for a better ride until 2017.
[H/T: CNET]