Disgusted Brooklyn residents were up in arms over a video game that turns the horrifying events of 9/11 into child's play.
June 2, 2005 -- Disgusted Brooklyn residents were up in arms over a video game that turns the horrifying events of 9/11 into child's play.
A hand-held video holy war, called "Laden vs. USA," features digital planes flying into the World Trade Center.
One furious family found it on sale for $4.89 on Coney Island Avenue.
"I was mad," said 16-year-old Tasha, who discovered the game in a store around the corner from her Midwood home. "I felt extremely offended."
The game's box features pictures of President Bush and Osama bin Laden, along with 9/11 imagery, including firefighters lining up for the tragic rescue at the Twin Towers.
Worse still, the insulting game is recommended for "ages 5 and up."
"People send their kids to the store," said a local mother of two, named Jeri. "Who knows what they'll come back with?
Mike Lucenti, 28, who bought the game with Tasha in order to bring it to the public's attention, fumed, "They shouldn't have that up here."
The packaging claims it's a boxing game, but when The Post turned on the sickening toy, the object appeared to be to drop bombs on planes flying into the Twin Towers.
Lucenti said the game was bought at a local corner store, called Oakdale Dairy, on Avenue H and Coney Island Avenue, in a Pakistani and Bangladeshi enclave of Brooklyn.
The manager, Muhammad Malik, said the store buys games from a wholesaler in Manhattan and typically just fills a carton with random goods, rarely looking at what they are buying.
"We hurry," he said. "If it was sold here, I don't know."
When The Post visited Oakdale Dairy, there were only harmless baby toys and video card games on display.
But at Lucky International, a wholesale store on West 27th Street in Manhattan, The Post found samples of the "Laden vs. USA" amid a jumbled mass of tchotchkes.
The owner, who would not give his name, said he bought one carton of the ungodly gadgets about a year ago from an importer in New Jersey.
"We don't sell much," he said. "Just once in a while."
And the toy, which appears to have been manufactured in China, was apparently being offered at a bargain on Coney Island Avenue.
Lucky's owner said it usually retails between $6.99 and $7.99.
