RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Rio de Janeiro — already notorious for street muggings, corrupt politicians, ruthless militias and Kalashnikov-toting drug traffickers — has a new public enemy: plushies. Or, more specifically, the joystick-controlled claw machines that dispense them.
On Wednesday, Rio police carried out 16 search warrants targeting the machines that elicit exhilaration among children and adults alike. But police said the claw machines defraud users who believe scoring stuffed animals to be a test of skill. In fact, they are games of chance — just like slot machines — and therefore illegal, according to their press office.
Officers seized claw machines, laptops, tablets, cell phones, a firearm and — yes — furry friends. They are investigating whether organized crime groups may be the invisible hand behind the claw because they already run slot machines and a popular lottery known as “Animal Game” across the city. Police in Brazil's southern Santa Catarina state carried out an additional three search warrants Wednesday as part of the same operation.
It marked the second such police crackdown, following another in May during which officers apprehended 80 machines. Not only were those machines stocked with counterfeit plushies, but subsequent analysis of their programming found winning pulls were permitted only after a set number of attempts, police said in their statement Wednesday. Facilitating such sporadic, successful snags is an electrical current to the otherwise enfeebled claw so it holds fast to its prize, the statement said.
That programming isn't disclosed to naive users, including children liable to blow their pocket money on what's effectively a crap shoot. Claw machines can be found in Rio's shopping malls, subway stations, supermarkets, arcades and toy stores.
Among Rio's claw aficionados is Alessandra Libonatti, 41, who has played for nearly three decades. She remembers the machines causing a stir when they first appeared in the city; she had only seen them before in movies. These days she tends to play once a week, whether alone or at the mall with friends who share her “peculiar” hobby.
She likes the low-investment adrenaline rush and, by her own account, she's a talented clawmaster who has honed her techniques to maximize success, from scouting the stuffed animal landscape to precise positioning of the claw. She treasures a manatee with jaguar spots that she pulled in on a trip to the nation’s capital with friends.
“When I pass by a machine, I give it a look to see if there’s a stuffed animal that makes it worth it to play," she told The Associated Press. "Because it's not always worth it; sometimes it's clearly a waste of money.”
Claw machines may have been feats of skill in decades past, but most modern machines have built-in programming allowing operators to predetermine their profitability, said Jeremy Hambly, a claw game aficionado from the Milwaukee area. His ClawStruck YouTube channel shows how many different models work, he previously told the AP. He said odds should be posted prominently on machines for users to review.
Most U.S. states consider claw machines games of chance and specifically exempt them from gambling statutes, as long as they comply with certain rules specific to those states. According to industry officials, it’s in arcades’ best interests to have customers win so they'll keep playing.
But lately it's tough going for Rio's claw connoisseurs, Libonatti said. And she chalks that up to changes made to the machines that didn't escape her exacting eye.
“The current machines are crap. The claws are weaker,” she wrote in a text message to a friend in April, reviewed by the AP.
“Amiga, yessssss!" her friend replied. "I went back to the machines where I always got (stuffed animals) in recent weeks and they're soooooo weak!”
Local online media outlet G1 dubbed the phenomenon the “weak claw scam.”
The nearly 13,000 stuffed animals police detained in May were initially destined for destruction, but a request from state lawmakers found favor with a judge who spared them. Instead, police donated the plushies to families who lost their homes in the massive floods of southern Rio Grande do Sul state, particularly children in shelters.
The fate of the stuffed animals seized Wednesday was still unclear.
Associated Press writer Bruce Shipkowski contributed from Trenton, New Jersey.
A claw machine stands at a toy store in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The Rio police press office said they were carrying out search warrants targeting claw machines because they are considered games of chance and therefore illegal. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
A claw machine sits inside a metro station in Rio de Janeiro, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. The Rio police press office said they were carrying out search warrants targeting claw machines because they are considered games of chance and therefore illegal. (AP Photo/Hannah-Kathryn Valles)
HONOLULU (AP) — The wind pushed flames from house to house as a group of neighbors tried to escape their blazing subdivision, abandoning their cars in a blocked road and running to an industrial outbuilding for safety. All six perished just blocks from their homes.
The group, including an 11-year-old and his parents, was among the victims whose desperate attempts to escape the Lahaina wildfire were detailed for the first time in a report released Friday. The investigation by the Fire Safety Research Institute for the Hawaii attorney general’s office delved into the conditions that fed the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century and the attempts to stop its spread and evacuate the town's residents.
It found “no evidence” of Hawaii officials making preparations for the wildfire, despite days of warnings that critical fire weather was coming, and that the lack of planning hindered efforts to evacuate Lahaina before it burned.
At least 102 people died in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfire that was fueled by bone-dry conditions and strong winds from a hurricane passing to Maui's south.
Joseph Lara, 86, was found outside his purple 2003 Ford Ranger pickup truck at the parking structure of an outlet mall and “could have been trying to go north on Front Street before he was stuck in traffic,” according to the report.
His daughter told The Associated Press on Friday that she tries not to think about how he might still be alive if he had taken a different turn to escape.
“He was alone. He didn’t have anyone to tell him he should go here, here, here," Misty Lara said. “I can’t fathom what his final thoughts were."
The report is a reminder of the trauma experienced by the roughly 17,000 people who survived by driving through fire and blinding smoke, outrunning the flames on foot or bike or huddling in the ocean behind a seawall for hours as propane tanks and car batteries exploded around them.
“I grew up in Lahaina and like many in that community, I lost family on Aug. 8,” said Deputy Attorney General Ciara Kahahane. “Through my involvement in this investigation, I tried to humbly serve as a voice for you, the people of Lahaina.”
More than 60% of the victims tried to flee, with many discovered inside or outside their cars or huddled against the seawall. Nearly 80% of the fatalities were in the central part of Lahaina, where the fire flared and spread quickly in the afternoon, allowing little time to evacuate.
Many were stuck in traffic jams created by downed power poles, accidents, traffic signals that weren't working and poor visibility. Some back roads that could have provided an alternative escape were blocked by locked gates.
For those who were evacuating, the distance between their home and the locations where they were recovered was on average 800 feet (244 meters), according to the report.
One couple was found in their car after turning onto a dead-end street in the chaos, with the flames behind them boxing them in. A man found huddled in the entranceway of a house had abandoned his car, presumably to seek refuge from the heat and smoke. Others took refuge alone in fast food restaurants or furniture stores.
Lahaina’s already-deteriorating infrastructure complicated evacuation efforts, the report found. Extended-family living arrangements meant households had multiple vehicles, parked on crowded, narrow streets, which created bottlenecks during the evacuations and blocked fire hydrants.
One road, Kuhua Street, tallied the most fatalities: More than two dozen victims were found on or near the narrow stretch of road that was the only path to safety for many in the densely populated neighborhood.
It was the same street where the report noted a firetruck was overtaken by flames and a company of firefighters nearly lost their lives. And it was the same street where a car accident trapped 10 people whose bodies were found in or around cars.
Joseph Schilling, 67, was found next to a fence on Kuhua Street, less than half a mile (800 meters) from the retirement complex where he lived. Emergency dispatchers had already tried to help multiple people who called 911 to report that the road was becoming impassable.
Six other residents of the independent-living complex who didn't evacuate died inside their apartments. Their average age was 86.
Some older people did try to evacuate, even without reliable transportation.
Claudette Heermance, 68, called 911 to ask what to do and dispatchers told her to evacuate. She left her senior housing complex on a motorized scooter, but it ran out of power as the flames advanced, according to an autopsy report released after her death.
Badly burned, she stayed in hospice for seven months until she died in March.
She was the 102nd — and final — victim to be identified.
Lauer reported from Philadelphia.
Hawaii Deputy Attorney General Ciara Kahahane, who grew up in Lahaina, discusses a wildfire investigation during a news conference in Honolulu on Friday, Sept. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)
FILE - Briena Mae Rabang, 10, holds the ashes of her great-grandmother Sharlene Rabang, who was named as the 100th victim of the Lahaina wildfire, while posing for a photo with her father Branden, left, and grandfather Brandon, right, Friday, Dec. 8, 2023, in Kahului, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
FILE - JP Mayoga, right, a chef at the Westin Maui, Kaanapali, and his wife, Makalea Ahhee, hug on their balcony at the hotel and resort, Sunday, Aug. 13, 2023, near Lahaina, Hawaii. About 200 employees were living there with their families. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Rays of sunlight pierce through the clouds, Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, above homes burned by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
FILE - Photos of victims are displayed under white crosses at a memorial for victims of the August 2023 wildfire, above the Lahaina Bypass highway, Dec. 6, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)
