The pilfering of automobiles is somewhat of an inevitability in GTA Online, especially given the name of the series.
No matter whether the car being nicked is some poor old man’s hatchback or an unlucky hedge fund manager's supercar, the last thing that players expect to be greeted by when they appropriate Los Santos traffic is to end up with passengers.
After all, unless you’re robbing a taxi driver, why would NPCs decide to hitch a lift with someone who’s just committed a crime? Strangely, it seems that’s exactly what’s happening to some players.
GTA NPCs Demand to be Dropped Off at Their Destinations
This is the topic of a recent thread in the GTA Online subreddit, which began with user SpareKnuckle posting a clip of them shooting an NPC and stealing his motorbike, only for the NPC to jump on the back of the bike for lift, captioning it: “anyone ever have an NPC hitch a ride after you’ve jacked them for it?”
A number of users lined up to offer reasons why the NPC would jump back on, with happyjeep_beep_beep saying: “if you're gonna steal my bike, at least get me to where I was going” and Electrical_Process89 adding: “I hope you at least dropped him off at the hospital”.
On the other hand, user Seltexe argued: “he's your new friend now, take care of him”, leading smarti23 to respond: “it's called Stockholm syndrome and it's pretty serious.”
User marksk88 offered a more down-to-earth explanation, saying: “I think it happens because the NPC is trying to get back on the bike to flee, but you sit in the ‘driver's seat’ just before they get on, so they default into being a passenger.”
Another user shared a story of something similar happening to them, saying: “I had a biker I stole (a) bike from ride on my back and he seemed pretty OK with it. We went for a tour. I jumped the bike off one of the raised highways, then parachuted off. Was only right to give it back to him after all.”
Meanwhile, user Plusquevie got philosophical, saying: “GTA online has such a unique sort of sentience to it at times, (it) makes you think it's alive.”
Make sure to follow us for more updates on the living, breathing beast that is GTA Online as new content, possibly starring Michael from single-player, is released.