A dude on the internet referred to Navy Fire Controlman 2nd Class Petty Officer Russell Tavares as "a nerd" in an online trollfight. In one of the more dramatic tales of internet rage we've seen lately, the 27-year-old Tavares, who believed himself to not be a nerd, hopped in his car and sped off 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas, where the name-caller lived.
Tavares photographed road snapshots along his route, and posted the images online, as if to prove to his internet peers that he was not a luzer. When he got to there, he burned the dude's trailer down. Tavares has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for arson. Snip:
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.
Link to AP report. (thanks, Andria)
Reader comment: Anonymous says,
First off – Tavares was sentenced today, but the incident happened two years ago.
Here's a video from Waco local news: Link.
And a more in-depth story from the Waco tribune, with photos of John Anderson and the ruined trailer: Link.
The site in question was Orfay. PyroDice's account is deleted (Link) but the Google cache love is there for all his photos (Link). A few of the pics hit on some 4chan memes. He's got a MySpace (Link) – his mood is "distressed." His Flickr stream (Link) shows he made it to Anime Expo in GTA cosplay garb.
Johnny Darkness goes by the Grand Goblin on Orfay: Link.
