Busted

Busted is a term thats been used throughout GTA games.

GTA1 and GTA: London

In both this games you will be busted when police touch you, or you've been pulled out of car or bike. You are losing all your weapons and multipliers. You can prevent losing weapons and multipliers by having special jail key card.

GTA2

In GTA2 police will hit you until you lost all your health points, but instead of dying you would be busted. Only policemen will try to arrest you, SWAT Team, FBI and Army are trying to kill you. You can be easier busted when you don't have full health, and vice versa - after beeing hit by a policeman but not busted, you could be easily killed. When busted similar to GTA1 you lost weapons and multipliers, but when having more than x2 multiplier you will be left with x2. You could find "Get Out Of Jail Free Card" pickup and have your weapons and multi's with you.

GTA3 Era

In GTA3 era games it appears on your screen when a cop/SWAT/FBI points his gun at you. This usually happens when you car gets stuck and a cop is able to run to your car door. Other occasions can be when you fall of a bike or are knocked to the ground, cops will take advantage of this and bust you.

On GTA3 you could avoid being busted by parking you car against a wall and looking away from it by pressing L2/R2 and this would lock the door.

As your wanted level increases and you have the SWAT/FBI/army after you you're more likely to be Wasted as they tend to shoot at you instead of trying to bust you.

The outcome of being Busted is losing all your weapons and $100 as a bribe to be let out. This is similar to what happens when you're wasted .