Kotaku
Two Connecticut man were arrested early this morning for shooting a man who refused to hand over his wallet while standing in line for a Playstation 3, state police there said.
William J. Robertson, 20, and Andrew Patnaude, 17, were arrested about 4 a.m. on several charges including attempted murder and robbery. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bond, the Associated Press reports.
Michael Penkala, 21, was shot by the two gunmen while waiting for the console outside Wal-Mart in Putnam on Nov. 17, launch day.
The two men had ordered everyone in line to throw their cash and possessions on the ground or put them in bags, but Penkala refused to give up his wallet, which was stuffed with more than $2,600 in cash.
Penkala told the Telegram & Gazette how it played out:
Mr. Penkala said that at 3:14 a.m., two masked men showing guns came around to the front of the building and approached several people in line."At that point, I knew what was going on — two kids with bandanas over their faces with guns," he said. "So I dialed 911 on my cellphone and dropped it into my pocket."
Before the two robbers confronted Mr. Penkala, they accosted two other individuals and ordered them to empty their pockets.
"They approached two kids first, and they got 75 cents out of them, and I was the third person they came to. And I wasn't giving it up for anything," Mr. Penkala said. "So they hit me with the butt of the gun in the face, kind of got me to the ground a little bit, continued to hit me and struggled for my wallet. And I just held on to that pocket and wallet for dear life."
Mr. Penkala had $2,600 in cash on him, $900 of which came from his grandmother. He was determined not to give it to the robbers at any cost. The first two individuals escaped unharmed, while Mr. Penkala was not as lucky.
"They emptied their pockets. They didn't have much, but they listened to them, I guess," Mr. Penkala surmised. "They wanted me to hand over whatever I had in my pockets and empty that out to the ground and into a bag. I wasn't going to have any part of that."Prior to being shot, Mr. Penkala, whose glasses were broken during the assault, suffered a black eye, a gash above and underneath his left eye (which needed two stitches combined to close) and impaired hearing in his left ear for several days. He was able to scare away the robbers, but not before one fired a shotgun in his direction, Mr. Penkala said.
"I started yelling at them, '...Get the hell out of here. I called 911!' Mr. Penkala recalled. "And they both ran and, after a couple steps, one of them turned around and fired a sawed-off shotgun at me and then just continued to run off into the woods."
Penkala was hit once in the chest with a shotgun blast from about ten feet away.
Despite the gunshot wound, which had him coughing up blood and feeling "lightheaded" he told the paper that his only concer was getting those Playstation 3s.
"When they let us in the lobby there at Wal-Mart, I was on the floor coughing up blood and telling the workers to take the wallet out of my pocket and give it to my friends so they could continue waiting in line and purchase the PS3s," Mr. Penkala said. "For some reason I wasn't thinking about my wound, I was all about those PlayStations."
Penkala, a PS3 scalper, said he doesn't regret refusing to give up his cash and getting shot in the chest. Things appear to have worked out for Penkala, who landed four, FOUR, Playstation 3s, three of which he purchased and one of which was handed to him by Wal-Mart for his troubles.
No comment.
PS3 Shooting Victim Has no Regrets [Telegram]
Comments
I was wondering what would happen if something like this happened (people getting robbed while in line for the PS3). I'm glad I was only in line for the Wii.
Wow now that takes BALLS the only question I have is why didn't the police show up and if they did why didn't he get medical attention.. I think I would have called someone or asked someone else in line to wait for the PS3 for me seeing how I took a 12 gauge to the chest.. Hope it was worth it and he didn't get lead poisoning..
So, if you're willing to get shot, you can get a free PS3?
"For some reason I wasn't thinking about my wound, I was all about those PlayStations"
Good to know he has his priorities straight...
Yes, that was sarcasm.
Wow, all of that over a PS3...
I guess the guy who tried to be a hero didn't realize that there is such a thing as credit card.
Who the hell carries over $100 in the wallet/ purse let alone 2.6 grand.
Hope it was worth your PS3's buddy...
I honestly felt bad for him...up until I read the part where it said he was a scalper.
This shouldn't occur to anyone, but I would be a bit more sypathetic if he had purchased it for keeps.
And you have to love this:
"For some reason I wasn't thinking about my wound, I was all about those PlayStations."
Translation:
"I was blinded by dollar signs to the point where physical pain was merely ethereal."
I'm glad he got shot. Get a job and contribute to society you lazy ass.
I hate when I cough up so much bloog.
i would never take shots from a shotgun to the chest for a PS3. Hell no, i hope these robbers get man-raped in which eventual prison they end up in.
The money he is going to make scalping PS3s isn't going to pay for his medical bills, I love irony
Coughing up Bloog sounds painfull. Still, without his actions it's possible these thugs would've got away with the robbery (robbing kids... classy).
Dumbfuck is lucky they didn't shoot him in the face.
I was damned near "Wow.. now that's a fan!"
Till I realized he might as well been buying boxes of rubber bands to sell on eBay.
Glad to see those two sons of bitches got caught. Lets hope they fry. That is, if Putnam and whatever state it's in practices the death penalty
Makes me glad all I had to do was pre-order my consoles. Got my brother's, my friends, and my own from gamestop on launch day while my girlfriends was after the gamestop cutoff, but we only had to wait until tuesday to get it. We also got our two preorded Wii's fine as well.
Poor saps who waited in line when we got our Wii at the gamestop midnight release we drove by bestbuy holding our Wii and Zelda: TP up against the window, shaking fists and scowls FTW!
That is quite frankly stupid to resist a armed robbery like that. Also he should not have had that much cash on him (giftcards and travelers checks FTW) or at least not that much in his wallet. Dont get me wrong I do feel bad he got shot but does he deserve a free PS3 for doing something wreckless and plain silly.
3 PS3's sold on eBay is easily over six grand. Not exactly worth getting shot over, but nothing I would just hand over to someone.
Well, at least he was shot, he deserved it, that damn scalper. :/
The fact remains, he did it all for the mighty dollar. If he got shot because he actually wanted to keep the PS3 (or give it to some deserving person), I might have a little bit more sympathy and/or respect for him.
//Not exactly worth getting shot over, but nothing I would just hand over to someone.//
Especially if you are uninsured like that guy was
wow just imagine what londons gona be like on launch day. (thinking)... erm i think ill take my chainsaw with me and do a gears of war on anyone who looks at me cock-eyed.
WAITING IN LINE
cute girl: hey handsome
me: grr brrraaawwwwww (cheap chainsaw sound effect) say hello to my little friend
..bastard got a free PS3.
Sony should use that to replace its appalling advertising campaign... Imagine the scene ! Man risks own life for a ps3:
"Astalavista, PS3 Launch Queue"
He gets shot, gets thousands in medical bills, all to sell 4 ps3's on ebay.
I feel sorry for the guy getting robbed and shot. Nobody deserves that. However, I do smile knowing that karma got him in the end leaving him in debt from the medical bills instead of profit from being a scalper/scammer on ebay. .
Eh, I felt bad before I realized he was a scalper.
Calling 911 and dropping phone in pocket might not always work flawlessly as it does in movies by the way.
When some retards stole my car last month; I dialed 911 and the automated msg first said:
"if this is a true emergency, press 1"
when I did, it shoot me off to the voicemail of the local police. :0 I kid u not!
This guy is out of his mind for risking his life like this; if he was a Sonyboy and was after one PS3 I'd have respected him but we could have done with one less scalper if things worked out. 10 feet and miss? tsk tsk
If nothing else, this proves that desperate people do desperate things. It's sad on all sides, that this guy's big money-making opportunity is buying and selling PS3s, that others think it's acceptable to hold an entire line at gunpoint, and that all of this is immediately negated by medical bills that will keep the poor guy in debt for probably the rest of his life.
If I ever find myself so desperate as to sell PS3s to make my yearly income, I'd just as soon shoot myself.
Yeah, the guy was an idiot. He is stupid lucky he wasn't hurt worse.
I still don't understand why people are so angry there are ebay scalpers for the PS3. It's a free market at work! If you wanted one, like me, you would have gotten one. I earned my PS3 and I can do with it whatever I want.
Less whine, more wine, if you know what I mean. :)
3 PS3's sold on eBay is easily over six grand. Not exactly worth getting shot over, but nothing I would just hand over to someone.
Far closer to $3000, PS3s soon stopped going for much more not long after launch. By the time this guy gets out of hospital to scalp them he really won't be getting more than 1k a piece for them.
I'm not sure he deserves it or not, on the one hand he was being robbed at gunpoint but on the other hand he was just there to act just as bastardly by scalping them. Now if he was an actual gamer and had crawled in coughing up blood for his PS3 then that would have demanded respect. Since he just wanted to scalp them to take advantage of the demand it just shows he's greedy and values money more than his life.
What a moron. So he was Ready to give his life instead of handing out 2,600 bucks. That shows how much the dude cares about his life. (or how much of an idiot he's to actually think people like that wouldn't kill him) He's lucky they actually
A) Used a sawed shotgun
B) used it from ten feet away, hadn't they done that and he would be deat meat by now.
Why aren't my comments going through? Anyway I agree the guy was an idiot. He was lucky thoug, the guys used a shotgun from a discrete distance. Had it been a more powerful weapon and we would be having pity on him instead of disgust.
Sue Wal-Mart. Crappy security.
All the reasons that I've ever seen that selling consoles on eBay is a bad thing, never really registered to me as bad, immoral, etc. I honestly don't see any harm in selling them for more than they're worth if someone is stupid enough to buy them for more.
Am I retarded, or do you all just bitch too much? I'm serious!
What this guy did was idiotic. From my experience in the State's Attorney's Office, armed robberies turn into attempt murders (or murders) very, very quickly. People think that for some reason felons are scared of jail (or some places, death for armed robbery/murder). They aren't.
Moral of the story: resist an armed robber, you'sa gonna get shot. This guy was insanely lucky, and doesn't seem to realize it.
That said, no-one deserves to be shot, no matter how bastardly they're acting. Not really a moral equivalence between shooting someone and scalping PS3s.
Now I know what to do for the PlayStation 4... get shot and I'll get a PS3.
Wow. You guys are assholes. I guess some of you forget reality exists, huh? The guy's unemployed, and it's a stupid game system that some idiot is willing to pay high mark-up for.
Feeding yourself and possibly a family is a lot more important than your shitty, petty "true gamer" morals. Especially over a PS3, which has been made obvious that it's a machine that could care less about gamers and more about the movie industry.
So get off your high horses and realize that if times were tough, you'd take any LEGAL (yes, what he was doing is legal) to make ends meet. I swear, a guy tries to get by without doing anything illegal, and you dumbfucks praise someone who does something illegal towards them, causing serious injury. I swear ,everyday on Kotaku Jack Thompson is looking more and more in the right.
Money or shot in the face? that is a hard call I mean tHink of all the money he could make off of ebay selling PS3s I mean he will have to wait atleast another 3 years to be able to do it again. He is just trying to save up money and move out of his grandmother's house. After all what is a gamer to do?
I agree with usedtabe. You all might look down on scalping a console, but that is a legal activity. Unlike armed robbery and attempted murder.
He's also right that the Kotaku commenting crowd regularly takes unreasoned, venal, mob mentality positions for no apparent reason.
Am I retarded, or do you all just bitch too much? I'm serious!
They just feel a false sense of entitlement. They think the scalpers are taking consoles out of their hands, instead of blaming Sony for only shipping a fraction of what they claimed they would. It's a fucking game console, it's not like the people who were selling food and supplies for exhorbitant prices after hurricane katrina.
I don't think it was a good decision but if I were put in that situation, in the heat of the moment, I might have done the same thing.
rateoforange says:
You all might look down on scalping a console, but that is a legal activity.
Just because something is legal doesn't mean everyone has to like it. If the individual had been more concerned in the long run(ie his life) instead of instant gratifcation("I don't have to work for awhile because I made thousands overnight! And I got shot!") then maybe everyone would have a bit more respect for him.
I'm not standing up for the robbers, but I'm not saying that the victim wasn't lacking in common sense a bit either.
So he took $900 from his grandmother to scalp a console. Hmm... dont fell so sorry for him anymore.
And what kind of idiot doesnt use a credit card for a $2600 purchase? The type of idiot asking to get robbed, that's what.
So great, he got 4 ps3 systems to ebay. He likely made a little money. What about the hospital fees for getting shot in the chest?
And put your money in the bank and debit it for fuck's sake. File that one under "Duh".
I almost feel bad for this guy, until I read that he only main concern was to only get PS3 to turn a profit on ebay.
Now he's auctioning them off on ebay to pay for his medical bills. He has no medical insurance so his bills are like thousands of dollars. Even if he does sell all PS3, he's going to have a bitch paying those bills...Karma does work!
@ryro
People use cash so they can give the receipt to whoever buys the console. Doesn't do any good to get a receipt that's tied to some other persons credit card. I think the getting shot over a video game console makes him look dumb enough.
It's easy to ridicule this guy, but he's pretty damn brave. I have alot of respect for this guy...the fact that these thugs got captured is probably due, in part, to this guy for standing his ground.
But then I remember he did all of this to console scalp...that SOB.
@usedtabe
Where in the hell are you geting your information buddy that this guy has no job?
Where are you geting information that he's just trying to make ends meet? Where did he get all this money? he has a cell phone that costs money.
You have no idea what your talking about so calling us "assholes" just shows your an idiot.
Scalpers good ones Make More money then A whole lot of people in this country because like drug dealers they prey upon the wants of people.
As for that this guy was a retard, Simple and FACT his priorities are fucked up. So lets see More then likely he has a job and makes money and has no reason to make ends meet, But he risks his life for some ps3's?
Amazingly retarded, This guy should be Nominated for the Darwin award thing.
WilliamRLBaker:
I get my information from the article that came with the same story on Joystiq.com, thank you. So again, those of you justifying what happened to this guy because of your petty "true gamer" distinctions, are assholes. So, I'm obviously not the idiot you thought. Before jumping to conclusions, you should check more than one report on something before calling someone else out on something you obviously have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. Get it?
-selling ps3s for profit on ebay is legal right up until he forgets to file that income on his taxes.
-just because it's legal doesn't mean it's moral.
-Get a fucking job.
-The robbers were about the same age as the victim. They weren't stupid. They knew that everyone in that line would probably be loaded because they were all waiting outside for the same expensive gadget.
-Yes, Sony was probably very purposeful about squeezing initial supply of the console. No, that doesn't mean it's ok to camp outside and snatch up all of the consoles just to make money on ebay. It further restricts legitimate supplies so that units that would have been regular (albeit exorbinate) price have all been jacked up and sold for anywhere from 2-10x that price. It means that people who wanted one can't have one, and cheesy camping no-job having shot up motherfuckers have 4.