At the Polaris Game Crazy on Saturday night, a man arrived to pick up a Wii for a person who waited in line. Being that he showed ID with the same last name as the person with the preorder and paid for the unit, no one thought the wiser. (In retrospect, it was obvious to a few of us in attendance that the guy didn't really fit in with the rest of the crowd).
The next morning, I received a call from the store, making sure I had published my original story, and as we discussed the situation, the pieces started to fall into place. The customer who had waited in line had come in to pick up the unit Sunday morning. Evidently, the man had read my piece a few weeks earlier about the pre-ordering and took a chance that the person whose last name he shared wouldn't be there at the midnight launch. He purchased all of the same products that were on pre-order by the original customer, and left. Fortunately, the store employees were able to track the man down the next day when the original customer arrived, and all of the products were returned unopened.
The customer was satisfied and the offender seemed genuinely apologetic, although he did ask the store to ensure he'd get a system before christmas. We at Gaming Nexus prefer to fight crime rather than be an unwitting accomplice to it, but at least the guy has good taste in consoles (and web sites!)
