2 men arrested in alleged theft of PlayStation units

Two Lakewood men were arrested Monday on suspicion of stealing a pair of PlayStation 3 video game players from their owner in a La Palma parking lot.

Eric Hwang and Joonhan Andrew Choi, both 18, allegedly responded to an Internet ad offering the new Sony players for sale and agreed to meet the seller about 1:30 a.m. in a restaurant parking lot in the 5000 block of Orangethorpe, where they allegedly stole the machines.

They were arrested about 9:30 a.m. at their respective residences.

The new PlayStation game players, which retail for $599 but have sold for as much as $2,600 on Ebay, created a stir well in advance of their release on Friday, prompting some would-be buyers to camp for days outside stores.

The two stolen machines were recovered at Hwang’s residence, authorities said.