Sometimes you stumble upon those news pieces that really shouldn't be funny, but make one laugh anyway. I feel like a real ass for snickering here, but this past Tuesday in Brazil, a gang known as La Firma kidnapped the highest scorer in the online game Gunbound, forced him under threat of death into an Internet cafe' and then had him give up his point-laden account for sale on the online black market. The plan was genius in its simplicity -- they set up the anonymous gamer on a date with what he believed would be a real life female. As we all know, such treasures are irresistable to gamers. We wouldn't stop playing The Haloz if the house was on fire, but present us with a chance to get laid and we'd break our own fingers.

Instead of a quick trip to Burger King and an awkward back alley fumble however, the hapless gamer was instead faced with a gun wielding gang member who forced him to fork over his account. Without so much as a lovebite, the now-pointless player was released back into the wild like so many unwanted Pokemans, while La Firma put the points up for purchase online -- a purchase worth $8,000 to any idiot willing to pay.

According to Xinhua News, Brazilian police were able to arrest the gang, which consisted of Tamires Rodrigues Vieira, 19, Anderson Faquini, 19; Alexsander Kaiser Pereira, 27; and Igor da Silva Carvalho, 27, as well as claim all manner of electronic swag. While this story has a happy ending, I presume, there is still the horrifying reality that people are willing to pay thousands of dollars just to have high Gunbound scores, making these kinds of crimes possible. We truly live in a warped and desecrated world.

[Via GameRush Entertainment and a little nudge from The Burling]