Man shot while in line waiting to get his PS3!
 

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) ? Two armed thugs tried to rob a line of people waiting for the new Playstation 3 game system to go on sale early Friday and shot a man who refused to give up his money, authorities said.

In other states, customers pushed and shoved their way to the shelves to get at the limited supply, and in Kentucky, four people were grazed by BBs fired from a passing vehicle as they waited for a Best Buy store to open.

The two gunman in the northeast Connecticut town of Putnam confronted 15 to 20 people standing outside a Wal-Mart store shortly after 3 a.m. and demanded money, said State Police Lt. J. Paul Vance.

"One of the patrons resisted. That patron was shot," Vance said.

He said the two gunmen fled after shooting Michael Penkala, 21, of Webster, Mass., in the chest and shoulder. Penkala was in stable condition at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester, Mass., with injuries not believed to be life threatening, Vance said.

Vance said police were searching for the suspects, both believed to be in their teens. He said one was wearing a ski mask and brandishing a handgun, and the other had what appeared to be a shotgun.

Aside from the police tape, things had returned to normal by midmorning at the Wal-Mart store in rural Putnam, a town of about 9,000 residents near the Massachusetts and Rhode Island borders.

Short supplies of the PS3 and strong demand led to lines of buyers, some waiting for days, outside stores across the country.

In Palmdale, Calif., authorities shut down a Super Wal-Mart after some shoppers got rowdy late Wednesday. In West Bend, Wis., a 19-year-old man was injured when he ran into a pole racing with 50 others for one of 10 spots outside a Wal-Mart.

In Lexington, Ky., someone fired BB pellets from a passing vehicle at people waiting outside a Best Buy store, according to WKYT, whose own reporter said she was among four people grazed while she interviewed buyers in line.

A Best Buy in Boston, aware it had only 140 of the consoles, got smart about the big sale ? its employees gave out tickets to the first 140 people in line so everyone could go home until the store opened.

wow those robbers are ruthless but smart
better to rob a line full of people willing to fork out 700 for a system than a mcdonalds (more money)

smart robbers...nerds are easy targets...

In LA there was a local radio show who had a reporter in LA at one of the Best Buy stores to interview the geeks, then they had pornstar ron jeremy call in to offer any of the geeks a free all paid trip to the bunny ranch in exchange for leaving the line (which they had been in for 48 hrs). None of the geeks took the offer..needless Ron was shocked....
It was hilarious and for once good radio since Howard.

These stories keep getting better...

huh? how is that smart? If the US is anything like South Africa out of the 30 people standing in line at least 5 would've been armed, that's plain stupid.

Not every state has Concealed Weapons Permits for their residents. You don't see that shit happening in Florida.

Us Geeks down here are strapped.

In Connecticut, the worst thing they'd be armed with is fierce thumbs and righteous indignation at the thought of all those lost hours searching for power ups and keys to unlock Numea's palace.

Down South, those geeks would've used their honed gaming skills in combination with a lifetime at the range and in the field to make a large red stain of those would-be robbers in the parking lot without so much as losing their place in line.

Then they'd have a race to see who got through to 911 the fastest, who could post to their favorite message board on their personal PDA the fastest and at least one of them is a webmaster who'd go register the domain name. The rest would be taking cell phone pictures and uploading them to ConsumptionJunction and their blogs.