Police catch WoW predator.
Linky
South Carolina police find "World of Warcraft" teen who fled NH to meet a felon.
By JIM DEVINE
Union Leader Correspondent
Thursday, Mar. 29, 2007
Windham – Police have found a missing 15-year-old girl who ran away to meet an man in Florida who was a online gaming partner.
According to Windham Police Chief Gerald Lewis, the teenager was reported missing on Monday after parents came home to find a note that she was "moving to the Boston area."
Parents told police that their daughter frequently played the online role-playing game World of Warcraft, which allows players to communicate with each other.
According to Lewis, officers learned that the girl was being home schooled and had cut off all interaction with local friends. Her only contacts outside the home were online.
The missing teen's mother told police that her daughter had mentioned a male named Daniel who lived in Florida.
Working with the family, Internet and telephone service providers and other law enforcement agencies, police were able to identify the online friend as Daniel Lenz, 27, of Jacksonville, Fla.
A record check showed that Lenz was a convicted felon with an extensive criminal record in Florida.
With the help of Jacksonville police, Lenz was located at his home on Tuesday evening and was arrested on an unrelated charge.
Police then learned that the teenager was being taken to Florida by Jason Dowling, 23, also of Florida, at the request of Lenz.
Approximately two hours later, Dowling and the teenager were located in Manning, S.C.
Windham Police said the girl's parents were on their way to pick up their daughter who was being held in protective custody by the Clarendon County Sheriff's Department in South Carolina.
Police believe Lenz instructed Dowling to take the teen's computer to prevent tracing her contacts back to him. They also suspect the girl's cell phone was left behind to prevent use of Global Positioning Technology to locate her.
It is not yet known whether Lenz will face charges in New Hampshire.
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/facepalm
IronClad Online: PurEvil
Wow, the depths people will go to is amazing. But I bet during the trial they will both profess there love for each other and that the system is keeping them apart and all that crap. Heard this all before and likely will so again.
Fathgar - Feathermoon
wordsmythe - "Jesus would drive a Hummer and burn as much oil as possible, since the dinosaurs it's made out of seem to be confusing people.
Kids are stupid, what can ya say? I'm sure plenty of folks in their mid 20s considered doing something like this growing up. The difference comes in how many actually go through with it all. It's not news that really should be news, as DM said; we've seen it before and we'll see it again.
wordsmythe wrote:
Podunk on Jessica Alba wrote:
Maybe now the parents will let their daughter go to school and make friends.
Semper Delectatio
Xbox Live - Cannibal GWJ XFire - cannibalcrowley
http://cannibalcrowley.blogspot.com/
somehow this might put a spin on things with the parents saying "we thought we were keeping our daughter safe from the world by home schooling her." but I guess we need to throw her in the basement under lock and key to keep her safe until she is 30. Then we can release her out into the world (with no clue how to interact with society and no survival skills)
Fathgar - Feathermoon
wordsmythe - "Jesus would drive a Hummer and burn as much oil as possible, since the dinosaurs it's made out of seem to be confusing people.
Guys, you're missing the point. The real crime was that she was playing an online game where the players were allowed to communicate with each other.
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
...they can also come bathe in the glorious, healing light of my Johnson. - Prederick
Funny; that's what I read too, as if that were some bizarre and excessive ability in a game.
I like the way the online friend was conveniently arrested on an unrelated charge just at the right time.
Don't you understand, Cliff? We put a chainsaw on a machine gun! That's it! It doesn't get more awesome than that! We've peaked, man! We've peaked! - ctrl-alt-del on Gears of War 2
Yes, I'm sure it will all be the game's fault somehow. At least that's how it will play out on Dateline.
Credulous at best, your desire to believe in angels in the hearts of men.
That, or we'll all be labeled as kiddy stalking pedophiles. Kinda like in the 90's where if you were in high school, and played Doom, you were inevitably going to shoot up your school.
I hate to admit it... but the one thing I'm wondering the most was...
Were they Alliance or Horde?
IronClad Online: PurEvil
Alliance; they seem more the pederasty type. Whereas on Horde, all the hot chicks are at least 18, at least all the ones I've... er, read about in second-hand accounts.
RIP ChronicNecrosis
I agree. I bet he was playing an Alliance paladin. First off, you can't trust those Alliance goody two shoes, but especially those paladins.
I hope the girl was found soon enough that she wasnt harmed.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
You should know that their are no women on the internet. Women are just a myth.
Fathgar - Feathermoon
wordsmythe - "Jesus would drive a Hummer and burn as much oil as possible, since the dinosaurs it's made out of seem to be confusing people.
But...but I've seen photos...(on the Internet, of course)
RIP ChronicNecrosis
Isn't this a fun game? I really, really hate reporting like this. None of these people even delved into the reasons why a 15 year old would do something like that. Yes, the guy has some arrests on his record, and I'm not defending him in any way. But COME ON. He was convicted of fondling a minor (i.e. someone under 18) when he was either 18 or 19 (since the newsies didn't even bother to get his age right). I know a few other people who could be convicted of that at that age too, you know?
Here's another, perhaps more interesting question: how far would you go to help a guildie in real life?
"The problem with proprietary software is that a specific developer controls its development--you, the user, do not. Every nonfree program has a lord, a master--and if you use the program, he is your master." - Richard Stallman
"The alleged victim's age is irrelevant", said Daniel Lenz' attorney in his statement. "He would've grinded her to 18 in no time !"
Shelter: a post-nuclear RPG.
This reminds me of something that happened when I was in the army. I showed a friend yahoo chatrooms, and use to let him chat on my computer when I wasn't using it. Well we were all hanging out in the motorpool when a guy from out company comes running up looking all bizarre. Anyway he come sup and tells my friend that he has a phone call from the General. We're all like what the hell as they both go running off to the company office. Now we all figured it couldn't be good, and maybe some family emergency had happened. It turned out via the grape vine that he had been trying to convince an underage girl to come visit him on the base. Anyway the girl's father somehow found out, and somehow a general was informed. He was instructed not to continue talking to her. He says he didn't know she was 15. Regardless he lost all pc privileges.
My other underage army story I won't go into, but it involves a guy engaged to a 15 yr old, and her mom dropping off that 15 year old at the barracks to spend a 4 day weekend with her fiance. To quote our 1st sgt "That's like throwing meat to the wolves, what did she expect?" It could've been quite the scandal.
awsome.
BUY MY STUFF!
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Xfire/Xbox Live: StylezXP