Mario Power-Up Prank, Bomb squad called.

[sega-soldier]

Ohio girls face potential charges for joke after bomb squad is called; teenagers made life-size Mario power-up boxes, hung them around town.

 

Games have gotten some kids in trouble again, but this time it's a far cry from the Devin Moore case, which continues to make headlines. This time the source of the problem wasn't an M-rated game like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or Doom, it was the seemingly innocuous Super Mario Bros.

 

In the town of Ravenna, Ohio, five teenage girls, ages 16 and 17, crafted some life-sized power-up boxes modeled after those in the NES classic. The cardboard boxes were covered in shiny, gold wrapping paper and had the black question marks familiar to most gamers. As an April Fools joke, the girls laid 17 of these boxes around the town in public spaces Friday morning.

 

The humor was lost on some residents, however. After noticing one package on the steps of a church, a concerned citizen reported the "suspicious package" to local authorities, who called in the county's hazardous materials unit and the bomb squad.

 

Upon further inspection, no materials designed to harm people, mushrooms to increase a person's size, or flowers that bestow the ability to project bouncing fireballs were found inside the boxes. The packages were empty.

 

Ravenna Police Chief Randall McCoy told the online edition of the Record-Courier that one girl came into the police department with one of her parents and claimed responsibility, saying it was just a joke.

 

Apparently, the girls got the idea from the Web site Quantz.com, which gives detailed instructions on how to make the boxes. The Web site intended the posting to inspire art projects, and several subversive artists have submitted photos of their Mario blocks in action across the country.

 

The girls face possible criminal charges for their actions. While most in the online community think the authority's actions are a tad extreme, McCoy defends the proceedings of his department.

 

"The potential is always present when dealing with a suspicious package that it could be deadly," McCoy told the Record-Courier. "In today's day and age, you just cannot do this kind of stuff."

 

A posting on Quantz.com responds to the incident in Ravenna. "Not everyone has the same cultural context and not everyone is relaxed about public spaces. [The idea of the project] is to bring a smile to people's faces, to get them to connect with their neighbors, to bring color into an otherwise grey urban landscape. [We] are deeply sorry that things are not working out in Ravenna."

 

By Tim Surette -- GameSpot

Posted Apr 3, 2006 3:21 pm PT

 

 

 

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147012.html?tag=nl.e513

Edited April 4, 2006 by sega-soldier

[Pidesco]

Paranoid is the word

[kirottu]

Geeky girls.

[Nartwak]

[Calax]

I give it two more years before video game stores become somthing akin to adult stores.

[Craigboy2]

So we can't go around the place putting boxes every where?

[Deraldin]

So we can't go around the place putting boxes every where?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, at least not in rural ohio.

 

I'm so going to do that next year though... "

[thepixiesrock]

So we can't go around the place putting boxes every where?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, at least not in rural ohio.

 

I'm so going to do that next year though... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That is evidence that you are planning on doing it, and you are aware of the trouble it causes. When you go to court, this will be evidence.

[Llyranor]

Well said, pixies. It's about time citizens stood up for the wellbeing of mainstream America.

[Deraldin]

Well said, pixies. It's about time citizens stood up for the wellbeing of mainstream America.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well you people keep standing up for it then. I'll just sit down over here on the north of the border... "

[thepixiesrock]

The border of Mexico?!

[Deraldin]

The border of Mexico?!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You're far too warm.

[Gabrielle]

Stupid girls.

[Kaftan Barlast]

If they should press charges against anyone, it would be the idiot who called them in as suspicious packages

[Fenghuang]

So we can't go around the place putting boxes every where?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well, at least not in rural ohio.

 

I'm so going to do that next year though... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That is evidence that you are planning on doing it, and you are aware of the trouble it causes. When you go to court, this will be evidence.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Well in that case I totally didn't see this posting and I am totally not aware of any trouble that leaving powerup boxes lying around town would cause.

Edited April 4, 2006 by Fenghuang

[Volourn]

What a joke. The whiners who wnat to charge the girls are absolutely pathetic.

[Atreides]

That was funny and sad at the same time.

[Craigboy2]

What a joke. The whiners who wnat to charge the girls are absolutely pathetic.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But someone could have been killed! Oh wait...never mind.

[Cantousent]

If they should press charges against anyone, it would be the idiot who called them in as suspicious packages

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Nice idea, Kaftan, you big doofus. The things probably did look suspicious. It's really funny until someone actually puts a bomb in the damned things.

 

However, I don't think the children should be punished for this action. If it didn't constitute a crime at the time, it shouldn't be treated as such. Furthermore, if it is a crime to place these objects around town, is it a crime to decorate a Christmas tree? After all, every ornament is a potential bomb. We have to be careful to protect ourselves from the fervor of the moment. The issue is more important than taking a knee jerk reaction. Just because we're starting with Mario boxes doesn't mean it will end there.

[Nartwak]

Is littering a crime?

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

Is littering a crime?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You can get an on the spot fine for it here. Think it comes under anti social behaviour or something.

 

They only explode when you headbutt them anyway so as long as no one does that :D

 

It dosnt look like they meant any harm by it so going overboard in punishing them dosnt really help anyone.

[LoneWolf16]

In terms of being overly severe in the punishment, this reminds me of that one case where a little girl threw a snowball at a friend, who ducked, and accidentally hit a patrol car that happened to be passing by. The cop got out and put the little 9 or 11 year-old in hand cuffs, took her down to the police station, and brought her up on charges, printed her, the works. She was sobbing the whole time!

 

Or that 2nd grader who threw a tantrum, hitting her teacher a couple times with little girl punches...the prinicple called the god damn cops. They arrived and restrained the girl, putting her in cuffs while she's crying for her mother...they printed her for god sakes.

 

I don't know what's going on in the country with law-enforcement and minors, but it's getting a tad bit ridiculous. That and it's majorly pissing me off.

[Fenghuang]

In terms of being overly severe in the punishment, this reminds me of that one case where a little girl threw a snowball at a friend, who ducked, and accidentally hit a patrol car that happened to be passing by. The cop got out and put the little 9 or 11 year-old in hand cuffs, took her down to the police station, and brought her up on charges, printed her, the works. She was sobbing the whole time!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I've actually done this. I guess it was about a year ago. I was up in Tahoe with some friends from Church, we were on a skiing trip and the Bible Study leader had the hookup with some friends who had a cabin. It was night time and the police for the tiny little residential area had pulled up and were bitching out my friend saying our cars were 'too far out into the street'. I couldn't hear any of this because I'd walked down the hill with him with the sole intent of lobbing snowballs at him from the bank above the cars. I couldn't see that it was a patrol car in the dark either (up in the mountains, fairly rural, no lights really) and as he was pulling away I lobbed the first in a production line of snowballs at my friend. It sailed just over his shoulder and hit the side of the car. All I heard was the cop cussing after that.

 

My friend explained that I 'wasn't quite right in the head' and the cop left though. Law enforcement people are so uptight. It was just a friggin' snowball.

[Kaftan Barlast]

If they should press charges against anyone, it would be the idiot who called them in as suspicious packages

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Nice idea, Kaftan, you big doofus. The things probably did look suspicious. It's really funny until someone actually puts a bomb in the damned things.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

You know what Im going to do the day Al-Qaeda puts a bomb in a homemade Supermario Bros. powerup box? Im going to eat my shoe... now wait, Im going to eat ALL my shoes.

[Atreides]

Do terrorists leaving bombs in unattended packages count?