Man insulted over internet burns rival's house down
Wow..I'm gonna be sure to be nicer to people on the internets now.
Quote:
'Nerd' taunt drove Navy man to arson
Petty Officer Russell Tavares traveled 1,300 miles to torch rival's trailer
By Angela K. Brown
The Associated Press
Updated: 5:02 p.m. ET July 26, 2007
ELM MOTT, Texas - A Navy man who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.
As he made his way toward Texas, Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states' borders, as if to prove to his Internet friends that he meant business.
When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down.
This week, Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading no contest to arson and admitting he set the blaze.
"I didn't think anybody was stupid enough to try to kill anybody over an Internet fight," said John G. Anderson, 59, who suffered smoke inhalation while trying to put out the 2005 blaze that caused $50,000 in damage to his trailer and computer equipment.
The feud started when Anderson, who runs a haunted house near Waco, joined a picture-sharing Web site and posted his artwork and political views. After he blocked some people from his page because of insults and foul language, they retaliated by making obscene digitally altered pictures of him, he said.
Anderson, who went by the screen name "Johnny Darkness," traded barbs with Tavares, aka "PyroDice."
Investigators say Tavares boiled over when Anderson called him a nerd and posted a digitally altered photo making Tavares look like a skinny boy in high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under a "Revenge of the Nerds" sign.
Tavares obtained Anderson's real name and hometown from Anderson's Web page about his Museum of Horrors Haunted House.
Tavares took leave from his post as a weapons systems operator at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Va., and started driving. Investigators say he told them he planned to point a shotgun at Anderson and shoot his computer.
Instead, when he got to Elm Mott — after posting one last photo of a "Welcome to Texas" sign — Tavares threw a piece of gasoline-soaked plastic foam into the back of Anderson's mobile home and lit a flare, authorities say.
Tavares' attorney, Susan Kelly Johnston, said his trip to the Waco area was a last-minute decision during a cross-country trip to visit his parents in Arizona. She said he never intended to hurt Anderson and did not think he was in the trailer when he set the fire.
James Pack, an investigator with the McLennan County Sheriff's Office, caught up with Tavares after talking to people in several states and Spain who had been involved in the online feud. Tavares' cell phone records showed he was in the Waco area at the time of the fire, Pack said.
Tavares told investigators that Anderson had spread computer viruses and insulted his online friends for too long, Pack said.
"He lost everything — all over an Internet squabble," the investigator said.
Tavares was discharged last year from the Navy, where he earned several medals — including the pistol expert and rifle expert medals — in his nine-year career, said Navy spokesman Mike McLellan.
Tavares would not let the feud go even at his sentencing. According to Pack, Tavares took cell-phone photos of Anderson in the courtroom while the judge was hearing another case. Authorities ordered the photos erased.
Anderson, an ex-Marine who served in Vietnam, said he continues to be harassed online, has been startled by people knocking on his window late at night and found bullet holes in a door to his business.
He said he is convinced the harassment is related to the Internet feud and plans to spend $30,000 on more fencing topped with barbed wire.
"Before this happened, the rule was: Nobody messes with the haunted house guy," Anderson said.
"Focus on making the 5 lifts stronger and getting enough food. There will be plenty of time to worry about glycemic indexes, PERs, and Bulgarian Split squats later. Much later."-Mark Rippetoe
That's the funniest thing I've read all night! Thanks for the laugh!
Check this out from the original post, totally ironic and poetic:
Quote:
Investigators say Mr. Tavares boiled over when Mr. Anderson called him a nerd and posted a digitally altered photo making Mr. Tavares look like a skinny boy in high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under the words "Revenge of the Nerds."
Mr. Tavares took leave from his post as a weapons systems operator at the AEGIS Training and Readiness Center in Dahlgren, Va., and started toward Texas. Investigators say he told them he planned to point a shotgun at Mr. Anderson and shoot his computer.
As nutty as it seems, sometimes people actually do mean to harm people who hurt them on the Net. I actually had a couple of yahoos plot to send screen shots of my political posts to the governor of my state, who I was training at the time, whose political views are quite different than mine, and whose council on fitness I ran for the state of Arkansas.
It was a little stressful having people who had that much venom for me out there, when I new little to nothing about them at the time.
I am a bit more cautious now, or maybe just a bit more paranoid.
On the flip side of that experience, I have also encountered incredible acts of humanity from people whom I have never met face to face. I have been humbled, moved, and awestruck.
I guess the bottom line that we are all finally figuring out here is that there should be any difference between the way we treat people on line and the way we treat people we meet face to face. It may be across a different medium of communication, but human emotions are still quite real.
On the net, it's harder to tell if someone's normal or posting from a Hannibal Lecter-style cell, too. In person, you can see the protective, bulletproof glass...
That reminds me, can everyone please send me a PM with their address and their schedule for when they are usually home. Thanks.
__________________
"So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable."
- Christopher Reeve
He was probably thinking to himself. Yeah right, what kinda psycho would drive half way across the country to deal with some internet insults?
Well. Now he knows.
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
whenever you cross a border or visit a new city. Stop and take a picture of you next to the "Welcome to..." sign. Keep a database of you and these pictures....
You never know when they will come in handy
__________________ 2009: No races, No times. Slow year. So, now you're 96 cals short. You're now in starvation mode. Doomed. - LostDog
Blog entry: November 1, 2009, Pancakes LiveSTRONG daily plate log
I'm driving to Birmingham next weekend to visit my little brother and his family for a few days.
Watch out, Bamadave, I'm coming to get you!
Passing through Little Rock, too. Hmmm....:p
__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin, 1759
Man insulted over internet burns rival's house down
I have no idea what you are talking about. I'm not really crazy..... :p
:co ol:
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