Like the little green aliens in Disney’s “Toy Story,” people — often kids — may find themselves obsessed with “the claw.” Claw machines, also known as crane machines, dot arcades, malls, even grocery ...

A groundhog wanders among the stuffed toys in a claw machine next to the Meadow’s minigolf course on Tuesday. The critter climbed up the prize chute and was stuck inside awaiting rescue by the Game ...

The crane machine—also known as claw machines, crane games and, in Japan, as “UFO catchers” due to their proclivity for aerial abductions—first gripped the public imagination in the early 1900s. Even ...