Ben Kuchera over at Ars Technica reports that a surprising number of UPS workers are being fired for stealing copies of Rockstar’s [tag]Grand Theft Auto IV[/tag]. Despite the collective cries of [tag]gamers[/tag] that GTA doesn’t lead to real [tag]crime[/tag], it seems that the opposite is occasionally true–if not in the way we expect. A UPS employee reports that this phenomenon is novel to GTA IV and has not occurred on this scale with previous big-name releases. Three workers were fired in a 24-hour period and further questioning into suspect conduct will be conducted in the near future.
“As long as the people loading the packages are doing their jobs, it’s easy to track down,” [a] source told Ars. “It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? It’s a game about theft, and people are stealing it.” His eyes began to shine as he said, “and I get to terminate them.”
While the shiny-eyed joy of firing employees is mildly disheartening, the fact that individuals are willing to commit theft and potentially lose their jobs over an early copy of a [tag]video game[/tag] is unbelievable. The informant at UPS further reported that these copies are largely being stolen for personal use, not for resale at inflated prices. No word on whether the thieves are going for the standard or collector’s editions, but I imagine that lockbox would be hard to stuff in your pants.
