Robber Uses Duct-Taped NES Zapper To Hold Up Bank

In the past, U.S. peripheral makers have designed their light gun controllers so that they don’t look anything like real weapons, to avoid kids getting shot at by police or mistaken for criminals. Namco’s PlayStation GunCon, for example, is bright orange, compared to its previously released black model in Japan. And then there’s the NES Zapper, which doesn’t look anywhere close to a real gun with its red and grey coloring. But leave it to one crafty bank robber to try and make it look less than so.

(Photo: GoNintendo)

A report filed by Cronio (translated by Google) indicates that this criminal recently used a taped-up NES Zapper to hold up a bank in Hermosillo, Mexico, covering it in enough black materials so that it almost resembled a firearm. (We say almost because, with its long-barrel and peeking-out red trigger, it still resembles the Zapper.)

“According to local media, the subject was stopped with a toy weapon that he would have covered with insulating tape so that the striking of his colors did not reveal that it was false,” the report reads.

Apparently this bank wasn’t his only stop, either. He apparently made “15 rounds” to different banks around Mexico, though it’s unknown whether he used the taped-up NES Zapper for each one.

However, there is a happy conclusion to this matter. Bank workers were able to provide a description to police; and just a short time later, he was arrested. No word yet on how many years he could be facing in jail, but he probably won’t be in a cell that has access to Hogan’s Alley, that’s for sure.

You can see a picture of the duct-taped gun above. He really did go all out to make it look a little more realistic than a “toy” gun, though some could easily see it’s a fake. We’d understand that bank workers wouldn’t want to take a chance with their lives over it, though.

It’s a little nuts how someone would try and hold up banks using something like this, but it could’ve been an even sillier scenario if he had done this with, say, a Super Scope. “What, this is a bazooka! Never mind the scope!”

(Hat tip to GoNintendo for the scoop!)