and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I'm having a hard time passing this one up, now that (as the dude says) "new things have come to light". Basically this story has been-a-brewin' for awhile but was never quite interesting enough for me to bother. Now, it's quite the twisted and convoluted modern fairy tale complete with imaginary people, Swedish mafia, electronics, and mysterious "men in black". Read on for details.

For me, it all started with the Feb. 21st article on BoingBoing.net reporting a "Rare Ferrari busted in half" in an accident in Malibu. Okay, not interesting yet, right? But then the details got weird:

Bel-air resident Stefan Eriksson claims that he was just a passenger in the car and that the driver, who he knew only as "Dietrich," ran away from the scene. Apparently, investigators haven't yet determined who owns the car either.

Enter the illustrious imaginary person, Dietrich.

Well, it turns out - in a bit of twisted irony - Eriksson was a top executive in the game company Gizmondo. As reported by the LA Times:

Stefan Eriksson had hoped that millions of video gamers would experience the thrill of street racing on a hand-held device he helped develop. But then Eriksson's $1-million Ferrari was totaled, an accident that gamers around the world may see as a cruel metaphor for the collapse of the portable console company.

Eriksson was a top executive for Gizmondo, a European video game system maker that two years ago garnered international headlines by challenging Sony and Nintendo with its own PSP-like device..

..But on the eve of Gizmondo's U.S. launch last fall, Eriksson resigned from the firm while in Los Angeles to market the device. His resignation came days before a Swedish newspaper alleged that Eriksson had been convicted of counterfeiting in the Scandinavian country in the early 1990s.

Whoa, the plot thickens.. and then,

Witnesses told detectives the Ferrari was drag racing with a Mercedes-Benz SLR.

So now we have our imaginary and shadowy figure Dietrich, a possible convict - mafia? So where are our men in black? The LA Times keeps us up to date - Ferrari Case Takes New Twist With Possible Tie to Bus Agency - A week later:

The car's owner [Eriksson], a former video game executive from Sweden, told Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at the scene of the Feb. 21 accident in Malibu that he was deputy commissioner of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority's police anti-terrorism unit, detectives said Thursday. [Say what?]

A few minutes after the crash, two unidentified men arrived at the scene, flashing badges and saying they were from "homeland security," according to Sheriff's Department officials..

..detectives now doubt initial reports that the Ferrari was racing a Mercedes SLR. Detectives had interviewed a second man who said he was a passenger in a Mercedes SLR that he said was racing the Ferrari at the time.

"There was no Mercedes SLR," Brooks said. "Simply, there was a Ferrari with two people in it. One of these men was driving."

Interestingly enough, Eriksson apparently owns a Mercedes SLR - but it's been reported to Scotland Yard as stolen, and apparently the Royal Bank of Scotland owns the Ferrari:

Sergeant Phil Brooks, of the LA County Sheriff's department, said: "The Royal Bank of Scotland called us after seeing the story in the UK Press. They said they owned the Ferrari because it was supposed to have been repossessed.

"However, we have not received any official paperwork."

Continuing on with the LA Times piece:

Just as murky is Eriksson's connection to the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority.

The organization is a privately run nonprofit that has agreements with Monrovia and Sierra Madre to provide bus rides for disabled residents.

On its website, the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority lists its address as 148 E. Lemon Ave. in Monrovia. The location is Homer's Auto Service, an auto repair shop.

Note that initial reports of the Ferrari travelling at 120mph have been uped to 162mph. Furthermore, Gamerevolution.com have a pretty solid mash-up of this Ferrari debacle (although they talk of a previously unmentioned passenger of the Ferrari, "Trevor") in which they add a $14 million dollar Yacht and a handgun to the equation (oh, and they lose Trevor):

It only gets creepier. The good samaritan who initially stopped and lent Trevor a cell-phone suddenly discovered a loaded glock magazine stuffed behind the seat of their car. Meanwhile, the authorities were shocked to find that the home address Trevor supplied to the cops turned out to be the boat slip for a $14 million dollar yacht that presumably went out to sea with Trevor onboard. According to this article in the Malibu Times, the owner of the yacht is none other than Carl Freer, former director of Gizmondo Europe and business associate of Stefan Eriksson.

Have you been sucked in yet? Well, there is even more. Read the full Gamerevolution.com article (with lots of juicy links) for - as Harvey would say - "the rest of story..."

Oh yah, don't miss the flow chart they drew up! It's the reason I even wrote this post.