A teenager in Fairfield Township, Ohio, has found himself on the wrong side of the law after he claimed to be suicidal when talking to a Blizzard representative in an online conversation. He’s now facing charges.

While talking to the rep regarding an issue he was having with “an online game” (presumably World of Warcraft) the teen eventually became frustrated and apparently tried to guilt the Blizzard employee into giving him what he wanted. According to the police report, he claimed, “he was suicidal and that the game is the only thing he has to live for,” which resulted in the Blizzard rep calling 911 instead of giving into his demands.

When police and paramedics arrived at the kid’s house, he claimed it was all a joke in order, “to try to get what he wanted for the game,” which resulted in him promptly being handcuffed and taken away in the backseat of a patrol car. Someone should have told him that the whole “It’s okay, I’m just a jackass” defense doesn’t protect one from prosecution.

Ben’s thoughts

I’ve been a part of online communities where a gamer threatened to kill themselves and then, you know, did it. You can never tell, and these days I’ve contacted the police more than once because someone made suicidal statements online or in voice chat. This isn’t really anything that’s okay to joke about, and wasting everyone’s time by threatening suicide to get some loot is pretty low.