Chinese gamer scales buildings Assassin's Creed style, robbing apartments to pay for gaming habit

We’ve all had the feeling of grappling our way up and down the sides of buildings in games like Assassin’s Creed. But how many of us have done it in real life? A 25-year-old Chinese college grad named Du has. He scaled up and down more than thirty stories in Chongqing…until he was finally caught by police.

The story begins the same way many of these WTF China stories do: a gaming addict needed money. Du, a college graduate, had actually previously had a job, but his frequent gaming led to him being late or missing work so many times that he was fired. He was afraid the same thing would happen if he got a different job, so he came up with a plan. He told his girlfriend he was working the night shift, but in reality, he hadn’t gotten another job. He was channeling his inner Ezio, scaling apartment buildings at night to steal things.

(See: $8 million government system “hacked” by Chinese primary school kids to play games)

This worked well, because many Chinese apartments have a sun porch or a small outdoor area, which is often used for drying clothes. These are often left unlocked because the breeze cools things off during the summer and because they’re not very accessible anyway. So while you could never walk right in the front door of most apartments, Du was able to get in via the porch. It didn’t work all the time—Du told police that he once started on the 30th floor and didn’t find an apartment he could get into until he reached the 13th—but it worked often enough to support his gaming habit and keep up the ruse that he had a job.

Du being arrested by police.

He was never quite as smooth as an Assassin’s Creed protagonist, of course. After the 30-to-13 night, for example, Du’s pants were ruined, his legs were covered in bruises, and he had nearly fallen off the side of the building. “I told myself this is too dangerous, I can’t do it again, this is the last time, it’s time to find a real job” he said. “But every time I got engrossed in the game again and needed money, I still couldn’t resist the urge.”

Eventually, police solved the problem for Du by arresting him after stolen goods were discovered in his home. But with summer in full swing in China, many city residents are keeping their windows and sun porches open to let the breeze in, which means they could be opening themselves up to an Ezio-style invasion like the ones Du was engaged in. Stay safe, folks!

(via Sina Games)