Arcade technician and programmer Marvin Wimberly probably thought he had the perfect plan: install a virus to disable a series of those loud and annoying Whack-A-Mole games popular with kids and get paid to fix them when they break.
The virus was designed to disrupt the operation of the machines after a certain number of on and off cycles were reached. Facing a pay cut and looking for better job security, the programmer was the only person who fix the problem when the gaming devices mysteriously turned off.
Under the Florida legal system, Wimberly is facing 15 years in prison for offences against interllectual property. That makes it sounds much worse than ‘tampering’ with a game to gain extra shifts and more pay.
[via WFTV]