Xbox Focus - Clarity Awaits You

A 13 Year Old's $30,000 Shopping Spree [Updated]

by Matt Schmachtenberg May 14th 2008 11:29 PM EDT7 Comments

So, you're 13, have a dad who's a lawyer and doesn't spend much time with you, and you know how to get an back up credit card sent from your dad's credit card company. What do you do?

You hire hookers, obviously.

Ralph Hardy, a 13 year old gamer from Texas has been charged with fraud and has to serve a three year community order for calling his dad's credit card company and ordering an extra card. He then went with his friends on a $30,000 shopping spree that included Dr. Pepper, Oreos, video games, and sex. The suspicion started when the clerk who was delivering food to Ralph and his friends in the motel they were staying at was asked where they could pay to "score some chicks" (even if they weren't 13, I'd be suspicious if anyone used that line and expected to be taken seriously). They told the clerk that they'd scored big in a World of Warcraft tournament and just wanted to relax. The clerk then ran off and called the cops on Ralph and his friends.

Hit the jump for the rest of this weird [and it actually gets weirder] story.

---

Before the authorities got there, Ralph ordered two escorts because he thought it was "the thing to do when you win a World of Warcraft tournament". According to the escorts, the boys said they're rather play Halo than partake in their services, though they first tried a very creative [and very bizarre] excuse: That they were working with a traveling circus and were of restricted growth, and that the State law doesn't allow people with disabilities to be discriminated against, so the escorts couldn't legally refuse them. Yeah, right....

When the authorities arrived at the hotel, they found $3,000 cash, an Xbox with games, various electronic gadgets, and the two hookers. Ralph told the police that his father wouldn't mind that he's spent $30,000 on the credit card, because he'd forgotten to buy him a present for his birthday the week before. His father told police later that he'd planned on taking his son on a surprise trip to Disneyland. So much for that, I guess. You're obviously too old to enjoy Disneyland once you've hired escorts.

The escorts, who were planning on charging $1,000 each for the night (must be some amazing hookers for $1000 a night....) were let go with no charges, as all they'd done was "play Halo" with the kids (Heh, I've never heard it called that before, but whatever floats their boat...).

I'm going to take a moment to say something to all of you parents out there reading this article. Ralph's actions were obviously caused by him playing violent games, so you really shouldn't let your kids play them. In fact, you should burn any that they own. And then throw them off a cliff. It's for the best, really, because they cause evil. Evil, I tell ya!

Ralph hopes to be a politician when he's older, and I think he's off to a fine start.

source: money.co.uk

UPDATE: Story confirmed to be false by Money.co.uk

• Send to Friend
• Digg
• Newsvine
• Del.icio.us
• Read Full Story