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  • PS2 held ransom for gas money

    by 
    Kyle Orland
    Kyle Orland
    02.28.2007

    Having trouble getting your deadbeat friend to pay you the money he owes you? Just take his game system and see how fast he comes running with the cash. That was the strategy apparently taken by an unidentified man who stole a PlayStation 2 from Des Moines resident James Kloppenburg while he slept. According to a short article in the Des Moines Register, "Kloppenburg told police he could have the game machine back if he repaid money he owed for gasoline." We can only assume that if Kloppenburg knows who he owes the gas money to, he also probably has a pretty good idea of who took his system. Still, according to the police report, Kloppenburg later decided not to press charges against the suspect. Why drop the charges? Maybe the ransomer threatened to harm Kloppenburg's precious PS2 if he didn't back off. Maybe Kloppenburg decided to steal back his system vigilante style. Maybe Kloppenburg just paid back the gas money and now everything's hunky dory. Whatever the case, one thing's for certain -- when debts come between friends, it's always the innocent game consoles that suffer most.