Real Life GTA: Florida Teens Cause $50,000 in Damage During Video Game Crime Spree

Back when I first moved to Cape Coral, I was all about video games. Man, I would stay up for hours playing GTA with my friends. But let me tell you, my love for games had its limits. I might have pulled an all nighter or two, but robbing a store for a new PlayStation? Nah, that's a whole different kind of game obsession.

According to WFLA, some wild Florida teens went on a 3 day video game crime spree by crashing stolen cars into GameStop stores! These five kids, aged between 13 and 17, were cruising around town in some stolen rides, ready for a height just like one might play in the Grand Theft Auto game series..

Their objectives? Smash and grab. All while Using the stolen vehicles as battering rams, they crashed into storefronts with a bang! Once the cars did the dirty work, the teens abandoned the wheels and stormed into the stores on foot. That's when they went to work! Let the looting begin!

And loot they got too. Around $8,000 worth of high-end gaming equipment. These weren't your average teenage trouble makers either. They were after the good stuff. Now 8k worth of stolen stuff might not seem like that big of a deal to some, but these idiots caused a whopping $50,000 in property damage in the process. It's safe to say that these kid criminals weren't concerned about collateral.

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office however, wasn't having any of it. They caught the little trouble makers, putting an end to their gamer heists. They say that crime doesn't pay, but the cops don't play either. Who knows if these guys will get out of jail in time to play the new Florida inspired GTA 6 when it comes out next year? I'm guessing no. Sucks for them. I bet they would have been good at it too. Wait... Does GTA 6 have a mission called Smash and Grab?

Why can't a Florida Man find a Pay n' Spray when he needs one? Reinier Lazaro Perez and Dayanly Cutino Gonzalez were spotted behind the Days Inn in Palm Coast Florida. They were spray painting a Peterbilt semi-tractor in the back corner of the parking lot. The hotel is located just off I95, we'll get back to that. Someone (who obviously can't mind they own business) thought that someone spray painting a semi truck in the parking lot of a hotel was suspicious. So they called the cops. When Flagler County Sheriff's Office  deputies arrived the two dropped the cans took off running along Southbound I95. That's your escape plan?

Dayanly clearly hadn't been doing her cardio and was quickly captured. Reinier managed to hide in the woods for about 2 hours before they found him.

The recovered semi-tractor is valued at $280,000. The semi-tractor’s original color is pink (really). The pair were in the process of spray painting the stolen semi-tractor red to conceal its original color when deputies arrived. Makes sense. I'm actually impressed with how good their paint job was coming along. They even took the time to tape it off. The semi-tractor’s GPS had been disabled and removed but was found nearby in the woods.