Ubisoft's 2014 hit Watch_Dogs presented a terrifying vision of the near future where a small group of highly-trained hackers has the ability to control a city like Chicago. Protagonist Aiden Pearce can hack things ranging from cell phones to traffic lights to blockers to explosives, as Ubisoft Montreal actually got real hackers to work on the game, giving them inspiration and adding realism to the sandbox title.
It looks like the near future is already here, as Detroit Police Department is currently looking for two gas thieves. The theft reportedly took place at around 1pm local time on June 23 at a Marathon gas station which is located about 15 minutes from downtown Detroit. To steal the gas, the suspects managed to hack the unguarded gas station and steal over 600 gallons of gasoline, valued at $1,800.
According to Fox 2 Detroit, the thieves used some sort of remote device that allowed them to hijack the pump and take control away from the gas station employee. “I tried to stop it but it didn’t work,” employee Aziz Awadh told Fox 2 Detroit. “I tried to stop it here from the screen but the screen’s not working. I tried to stop it from the system; nothing working (sic).” Azis also says the system wouldn’t respond and it wasn’t until he says he got an emergency kit that he was able to shut the pump down.
The station owner doesn't want to share surveillance video, but police did confirm that whatever device was used did stop the pump from being turned off inside. Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call police at 313-596-5840. Police are searching for the men in the photos below: