A man has been sent to prison for four months for carrying a tiny Master Sword replica he claimed was a ‘fidget toy’, in Nuneaton.
Being an overzealous gamer can get you in a lot of trouble with the law, as we saw earlier this year when a man was facing five years in jail for selling modified pokémon in Japan.
Last year, also in Japan, someone got a hefty fine and a five-year prison sentence for spoiling the ending to a Steins;Gate visual novel.
Now a UK man is added to the list of gamers losing their freedom, as he’s been sentenced to four months in prison for carrying a six-inch long Master Sword replica from The Legend Of Zelda.
Police officers in Nuneaton, outside Birmingham, were made aware by CCTV footage of the man, Anthony Bray, carrying something in his hand.
Bray approached the officers with the sword in his hand and was then arrested, the Warwickshire police report states.
‘The blade was inside a sheath and could be released from the sheath with the press of a button,’ states the report.
Bray said he had bought the Master Sword online as a fidget toy, but the officers saw things differently.
‘Officers tried to explain to Bray that, despite its intended purpose, it was in fact a sharply pointed item which could be used as a weapon and might put others in fear of it being used against them,’ the police report says.
Bray admitted that the sword could be perceived as threatening, but that he wouldn’t use it as a weapon.
Regardless, on June 28 Bray was sentenced to four month in prison, has to pay a victims’ surcharge of £154, and got a talking to by the police.
‘We take a zero tolerance to bladed articles in public, and Bray has fallen afoul of this,’ said Sgt Spellman of the Patrol Investigations Unit, adding:
‘It is possible to find fidget toys that aren’t six-inch blades. It is possible not to walk down the street holding them out in front of you.
‘With a bit more self-awareness, Bray could have avoided contact with us completely.’
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