70-Year-Old Victimized by Chat Room 'Friend'

Dec. 8, 2004 -- -- A 70-year-old man, alone on Thanksgiving and looking for a little companionship, found himself duct-taped to a chair and robbed of his money, computer and car by a "friend" he'd met in a chat room, police said.

The crime was the first of its kind that Troy, Mich., police have had to deal with, Lt. Gerry Scherlinck said, but it's part of a pattern that is showing up more and more across the country, as people become more and more comfortable with using chat rooms and chat lines as a way to meet other people.

In Portland, Ore., last month, Douglas Swanson, a 51-year-old lawyer, was found slain in Mount Hood National Forest. Investigators said he was kidnapped and killed by a methamphetamine-addicted woman and her boyfriend after he and the woman became acquainted on a telephone chat line.

Swanson's head was covered with a plastic bag closed around his neck with duct tape, according to court records. His hands and feet were also bound with tape and rope, and tape was used to gag him, court records said.

Many of the warnings on the dangers of the Internet have been focused on those who are most vulnerable -- children who are lured into meetings by adults, often posing as other youngsters, in chat rooms. But as the cases in Troy and Portland illustrate, adults are vulnerable, too.

Scherlinck said there were indications that the robbery in Troy on Thanksgiving might not have been a spur-of-the-moment crime.

"This seemed like a pretty well-planned-out crime, so we're concerned it may have happened to other people," he said.

It has happened to others, according to news reports from around the country, if perhaps not in the Troy area.

In Tacoma, Wash., in October, a 38-year-old man was allegedly robbed when he went for a date with someone he thought was "Ashley," with whom he had chatted online, police said.

He told police he never met any "Ashley," just a 300-pound man who he said told him his intended date was a minor and ordered him to hand over his money, then forced him to go to an ATM and take out $160.