Man under house arrest gets sick of Xbox and chooses jail instead

By Michael Rougeau June 6, 2013

Minecraft Jail — Image used with permission by copyright holder

A 19-year-old New Zealand man under house arrest ran out of Xbox games to play and chose serve the remainder of his sentence in jail, Northland daily paper The Northern Advocate reports. Having served ten months of an 11-month sentence confined to his home, the man reportedly called police and informed them that he was sick of playing Xbox and would breach his house arrest unless they took him to jail. Unsurprisingly, they complied.

Presumably, the man was just bored, because there is no way he could have actually played every Xbox game in just 10 months. It sounds like he didn’t even attempt to delve into Sony or Nintendo’s offerings, not to mention the thriving portable games market on handheld systems and mobile devices. Hell, many gamers would kill for a solid 10 months of gaming to tackle their ever-growing piles of unfinished games. Then again, maybe that’s exactly what this guy did.

Commenters’ reactions on the original story paint a slightly different picture; one suggests that the man wanted to serve a month in prison so he would be eligible for New Zealand’s $350 “Steps to Freedom” grant, and another claims the entire story is false. Either way, Microsoft can’t be happy to see a headline reading “Man chooses jail over Xbox” in the news just days before E3 2013.

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Michael Rougeau

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mike Rougeau is a journalist and writer who lives in Los Angeles with his girlfriend and two dogs. He specializes in video…

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