AN AUSTRALIAN has paid $10,420 for a rare video game that was auctioned online by a Canadian after deciding that his dope-smoking son did not deserve it as a Christmas present.
The sale of Guitar Hero III took place after the father had spent two weeks searching for the video game for the Nintendo Wii gameboard.
"I came home from work early and what do I find? My innocent little boy smoking pot in the backyard," said the seller, a school teacher who kept his identity private. He sold it as a punishment.
Newspapers and online sources today reported that a Canadian father sold a hard-to-find video game, which he bought for $90, for $9000 (Canadian), after finding his son smoking pot.

The father had bought ''Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' for Nintendo Wii, which cost him $90, after scouring every store, to find it as a Christmas present for his son.

"I was so relieved in that I had finally got the Holy Grail of Christmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time," the father wrote on eBay when selling the item. However, when the man came home on Saturday, a bit early, he found his son smoking pot with two friends.

The man, a school teacher, said he sold the game to punish his son, and stop him from smoking. The game was sold on eBay for $9000, over one-hundred times the original selling price of the game. 

The boy, however, will not go without a present, as the man considered purchasing a Nintendo Wii game such as ''Barbie as the Island Princess'' or ''Dancing with the Stars''.

According to the ''The Daily Telegraph'', the purchaser was an Australian father.  

The veracity of the winning bid has yet to be authenticated, so suspicions that the exchange may not be finalised remain.