Virtual Romance Leads to Real-Life Kidnapping

• Author: admin
• Filed under: Tech News
• Date: Aug 26,2008

A romance between two “residents” of the virtual world Second Life has led to an attempted real-life kidnapping.

Kimberly Jernigan, 33, of North Carolina, distraught (to say the least) over the failure of her virtual romance with an unnamed 52-year-old male from Claymont, Delaware, was arrested after attempting to kidnap him. This was actually her second attempt in the past few weeks.

New Castle County police say that on Aug. 21st, Jernigan hid inside her former boyfriend’s home with a Taser, a pair of handcuffs, a BB gun, her dog (yes, her dog), and a roll of duct tape. Cpl. Trinidad Navarro, a spokesman for the New Castle police said:

“She started this virtual relationship and she wasn’t ready to break it of. She had difficulty distinguishing between the virtual relationship and a real-life relationship.”

There was at least an attempt at a real relationship; the affair wasn’t broken off until the two met in person. And yes, it was an affair, as she and her husband Michael (who recently separated from her) had an “open” relationship and apparently both started online romances in Second Life.

“We had an agreement to have a somewhat open relationship and actually being involved in a game online was a very safe way to do that. Or so I thought when we both got started.”

Apparently not so safe. Online activity has spilled over into real-life before, however. I earlier wrote about an MMORPG clan rivalry that eventually led to a real-life murder.