A Thai youth confessed to robbing and murdering a taxi driver while trying to recreate a scene from Grand Theft Auto 4. It is said that he was curious about whether or not it was as easy to steal a taxi in real life as it is in the game. Well kid, it is. Was your curiosity worth the pending charge that could result in death by lethal injection?

In an effort to disparage future occurrences of impressionable kids gone mad, Sakchai Chotikachinda, sales and marketing director of New Era Interactive Media has urged distributors to pull the game from their shelves. This is the worst news we’ve heard since Rockstar Games declared a GTA for the DS. We all know no gamer is more impressionable than a Nintendo fan boy.

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Anyone who lives in a big city, or even has visited one, know how much it sucks to have to look for a taxi. They might be all around you, but not a single one seems to be available, or when every single one seems to pick up everyone on the street but you. Well a cabbie named Tony Brady and product designer named Chris Cullen have decided to assist all those who desperately need help getting a taxi by creating the Taxi Hailer.

The Taxi Hailer is simple: it’s a flashing light with an on/off button compacted into credit-card size so it can fit in your wallet. The purpose of this is to attract the attention of the taxi drivers without you having to practically run at their cars. If you have to deal with crazy taxi drivers often (i.e. everyday) then don’t worry about the battery dying on the Taxi Hailer; it is said to last 100 hours, which is potentially a long time if this light does its job and gets you into taxis almost instantly. If you live in London, you’re in luck because the taxi drivers recognize this there. If you live anywhere else, this will probably get you the attention of the taxi drivers and the normal people around you. And for $13, what could be better than getting into taxis faster and giving strangers something to laugh about at the expense of your image. — Nick Rice

Taxi Hailer [via Tech Digest]