Last week, a group of six teenagers has had quite a wild night out. According to Newsday, they robbed a man, stole a pack of cigarettes from a driver, tested the resistance of a passing van’s body with a bat and eventually blocked traffic and started harassing motorists.

According to Nassau county police spokesman Det. Sgt. Anthony Repalone, all the aforementioned actions were inspired by the video game Grand Theft Auto, as the youngsters "were emulating" a GTA character going on a crime spree.

Among the six who were arrested, the following five are facing felony charges: Dylan Laird (aged 17), Stephen Attard (18), Samuel Philip (16), Brandon Cruz (15) and Gurnoor Singh (14). Photos of the last two haven’t been released by the police, as they are under-aged. The sixth, Jaspreet Singh (17), faces charges of criminal possession of stolen property.

This situation will probably add to the already controversial status the game has reached since launch.

Most recently, Rockstar Games has managed to solve the Hot Coffee class action lawsuit situation and financially speaking, one could say it has done so rather efficiently. Only 2,676 people seem to have been offended by the game’s hidden sex scenes, as that is the number of user claims recorded within the case.

It all started when a secret sex mini-game was found in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andrea. As mentioned above, the impact of the whole thing wasn’t very significant. There are a lot of people who feel that in-game sex (adult-oriented games of course) is as normal as that found in movies and should not be treated differently.

It seems that video game violence will be catching the public’s eye in the immediate future.