A ten-year-old Nebraska lad is facing a felony theft charge after racking up an $800 Minecraft bill on his grandmother’s credit card.
First things first: I have no idea how anyone could ring up $800 worth of Minecraft stuff. I don’t even know if it’s possible. But that’s the line that police in the town of Lincoln, Nebraska are going with, and so that’s how we’ll roll along.
According to the police, a 74-year-old woman was contacted by her bank about suspicious activity on her credit card, which they eventually tracked down to her young, Minecraft-loving grandson, who reportedly ran up the huge bill while playing the game online. The bank told her that it would reverse the charges once she filed a police report – and so that’s what she did. The police referred the case to the Lancaster County DA’s office, and the boy is now facing a felony theft charge.
Kids unintentionally plowing huge charges onto their parents’ credit cards is nothing new – I did it back in the early 80s – but it’s unusual, and very unfortunate, that the system has this kid facing such serious trouble. Surely there must have been a way to resolve the matter without filing charges, and if not, surely any rational parent or grandparent would opt to eat the bill rather than throw their pre-teen child to the wolves of law enforcement. And yet, apparently not.
And just how does one spend $800 on Minecraft, anyway? I have no doubt that the bill is real but I suspect there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Source: KLKN
