While PlayStation 3 thieves busy themselves punching women in the face, an Xbox thief in North Carolina breaks into a medical center and steals multiple consoles meant for children recovering from cancer. Update: The games industry rallies!


If I were writing a crime handbook, one of the first rules would be something about not doing anything that riles up the general public enough to make them want to hunt you down like a dog. Things like punching women in the face, or stealing the video game consoles children at the Carolinas Medical Center use while recovering from cancer.


Another rule would involve not looking directly into the security camera.

The man pictured above is being sought be authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina, for breaking into an office on the Carolinas Medical Center Campus Saturday morning and making off with five video game systems, including an Xbox. The crime was caught by multiple security cameras located throughout the facility.

Police are hopeful someone will come forward and identify the man, playing on the community's righteous rage to garner support.

"We are definitely making every attempt to get these gaming systems back to the young patients at Carolinas Medical Center so that they won't be deprived much longer from playing their favorite video game while enduring treatment for their illnesses," officers said in a news release about the theft.


Between the Radio Shack robbery and this, I'm not sure which makes me more angry. While I figure that out, hit up the link below for a full report on the incident.

Update: After seeing the story on Kotaku, EA has contacted the Carolinas Medical Center and will be replacing the consoles and supplying them with new games. From an EA spokesperson:

"This story really struck us at EA. We can't believe someone would do this right before Christmas and victimize kids recovering from cancer no less. We've made contact with the hospital and EA's going to step up to replace the Carolinas Medical Center's consoles before Christmas and hook them up with new games as well. Hopefully this will brighten up the kids' holidays. Thanks for bringing this story to the attention of the industry."


Update 2: The Halo Waypoint team at Microsoft dropped us a line to let us know that they also had a care package on the way.

Warm fuzzies all around!

Police: Man Stole Game Systems Used By Young Cancer Patients [WSOCTV.com]