Video games often are blamed for causing violent crimes. But in the case of a Tennessee kidnap victim, Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) may have saved his life.

As reported by the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Jose Ignacio Ortega Garcia was kidnapped, beaten and tortured by a pair of men who held him captive in a filthy motel room for nine days.

Garcia, a business owner, was forced to write checks to the men totalling more than $17,000. His kidnappers also made him call his wife and tell her that he had left her for another woman in order to keep her from calling the police.

Charged in the case are Jose Sanchez, 18, and Juan Gonzales, 28. As reported by the Times-Sentinel, it was a video game which finally ended Garcia's ordeal.

On June 21, Gonzales gave Sanchez a hand-held video game that would prove to be Garcia’s savior...

“Sanchez played the video game virtually all day that day and much of the night,” [according to an FBI report]

Garcia used the distraction as an opportunity to loosen his bindings. When the exhausted gamer fell asleep, Garcia bolted, running from the room to the hotel office, screaming, “They are trying to kill me..."

While the newspaper doesn't say which handheld system gets credit for saving Garcia, GamePolitics has learned that it is Sony's PSP. A criminal complaint filed by FBI Agent Buddy Early, Jr. includes the following sentence:

Suspect Sanchez's thumb print was recovered from a Play Station Portable hand-held video game box recovered from victim Garcia's car...