Teenage Xbox Runaway Found In Puerto Rico

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Teenage Xbox Runaway Found In Puerto Rico


A 16-year-old teenager from Michigan has been found alive and safe after running off to Puerto Rico to live with a man she met over Xbox Live [http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/] and pursue her dream of being a boxer.

Jasmine Rieberger was found by police on Tuesday, three days after she disappeared from her parents' Michigan home. The teen left a note saying in part, "I am not kidnapped," but her father Michael was nonetheless distraught when he spoke to ABC Detroit station WXYZ [http://www.wxyz.com/default.aspx]. "I'm worried I'll never see my daughter again," he said. "If she was killed, raped, I have no clue."

But the girl's mother, Stacey, said it later became apparent that the teenager met a 26-year-old man from Puerto Rico while playing her Xbox online. The pair began exchanging text messages and conversing over the telephone before she hopped a plane and flew to meet him. She used her "Sweet 16 birthday money" to buy the ticket, and before leaving she destroyed both her computer and her Xbox to cover her tracks.

Fortunately for her parents, she wasn't quite smart enough to dispose of the phone bills that contained her paramour's number, which made it relatively easy for Interpol to track the teen down to a house near San Juan, where she was living with him and his family. Despite the fact that she flew there voluntarily, the man has been detained by police.

"From what we gathered from the note is that he made promises to her," her mother said in an interview with Good Morning America [http://abcnews.go.com/gma]. "[He] lured her there with some kind of promises to become a boxing champion."

Her mother was scheduled to fly to Puerto Rico today to join her husband and daughter. " can't wait to see her," she said. She also gave a warning to parents of prospective teenage female boxing champs who got too damn much money for their 16th birthday. "No matter what you do, you can't protect them 100 percent of the time," she said. "The cell phone is another way the predators can get to them. That's how they got to my daughter."

While it's unclear who "they" are, WiredSafety [http://www.wiredsafety.org/] founder and chief Perry Aftab concurred with the sentiment. "Parents don't realize kids are playing [videogames] and communicating," he said.

Source: GameCulture [http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/story?id=6802149&page=1]


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mattttherman3

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Dec 16, 2008
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YOU SO STOLE THAT FROM ME, well it doesn't matter, I stole it from Gamespot. Although I wouldn't be surprised if this was seen on Fox or Nancy Grace(the devils trainer)
 

Ursus Astrorum

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Mar 20, 2008
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It seems that the news team has been behind the times for a while now. This is the third story in a row that was already posted by a regular user.
 

zacaron

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Apr 7, 2008
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fuck, you just know they are going to find a way to blame video games for this
 

Break

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Sep 10, 2007
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This is... Wow. Meeting a man over Xbox Live, flying to another country to live with him, and leaving your family behind, is one thing. I mean, it's stupid, but it's a fairly standard, teenage-rebellion style of stupid. Doing all that because you want to become a boxing champion is on this whole other level of insanity.
 

LokiSeto

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Jan 25, 2008
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Break said:
This is... Wow. Meeting a man over Xbox Live, flying to another country to live with him, and leaving your family behind, is one thing. I mean, it's stupid, but it's a fairly standard, teenage-rebellion style of stupid. Doing all that because you want to become a boxing champion is on this whole other level of insanity.
I completely agree. Although I'm not actually 100% this guy is a predator. I mean in the end all we're getting is this crap from the mother, and news networks saying "he's a predator" and honestly thinking that any guy who talks to a girl is a predator is just plain overprotective bull. I'd like to know her side of the story and see what she thought of him and why she choose to go there, then his side... also the side of the police because she may be slightly delusional (she is a teen afterall) and he could be flat out lying but then again he could be telling the truth as well. We do not know. Assuming innonce before claiming guilty seems to be gone now adays.

Although I will have this to say... it was incredibly stupid no matter the intentions. Especially breaking her computer and X-box. Just taking the harddrives with you would have been SOOOO much better. Also now who is gonna pay for her to get new ones? Not her parents!
 

zoozilla

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Dec 3, 2007
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Break said:
This is... Wow. Meeting a man over Xbox Live, flying to another country to live with him, and leaving your family behind, is one thing. I mean, it's stupid, but it's a fairly standard, teenage-rebellion style of stupid. Doing all that because you want to become a boxing champion is on this whole other level of insanity.
I wouldn't be surprised if the guy wasn't in fact "luring" her with promises of being a boxing champion, but he actually meant it as a joke (a kind of, "Yeah, I bet I could make you a boxing champion LOLOL" thing).

And the girl didn't get that it was a joke. And freakin' flew to Puerto Rico to meet him. Jesus, how much "Sweet 16" money did she get anyway?
 

DeadlyYellow

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Jun 18, 2008
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fish food carl said:
I fail to see how he's a "predator". It's hardly like he's sitting at home going "Yes, another one! Evil cackle. . Muhahahaha!"
Ten years older and seducing an underaged girl?

Just another concern for parents to look out for now.
 

Yog Sothoth

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Dec 6, 2008
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Hankage said:
I can understand her dreams of wanting to become a boxer.

She's so ugly I wanna hit her.
oh, like you're some prize? take your misogynistic bullshit somewhere else....
 

Dectilon

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Sep 20, 2007
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So what were they doing when they found her? Training boxing? :)

It'd actually be pretty hillarious if that guy was not a pedophile + 100% serious.
 

Cubilone

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Jan 14, 2009
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This kind of news just gives more right to Nintendo and their silly "you only play people you actually know through the 'net!" policy... Ugh I say.
 

BobisOnlyBob

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Nov 29, 2007
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Dectilon said:
So what were they doing when they found her? Training boxing? :)

It'd actually be pretty hillarious if that guy was not a pedophile + 100% serious.
Something is practically telling me this is the case. It'll just be another pathetic creepy story otherwise (with the videogame-scapegoat to boot) but if that's not the case, this'll either lead to one of the funnier follow-up stories of the year or swept under the rug and not picked up by the journos. I can only hope it's the former.
 

BobisOnlyBob

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Nov 29, 2007
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Dectilon said:
So what were they doing when they found her? Training boxing? :)

It'd actually be pretty hillarious if that guy was not a pedophile + 100% serious.
Something is practically telling me this is the case. It'll just be another pathetic creepy story otherwise (with the videogame-scapegoat to boot) but if that's not the case, this'll either lead to one of the funnier follow-up stories of the year or swept under the rug and not picked up by the journos. I can only hope it's the former.

Yog Sothoth said:
Hankage said:
I can understand her dreams of wanting to become a boxer.

She's so ugly I wanna hit her.
oh, like you're some prize? take your misogynistic bullshit somewhere else....
I agree that's pretty misogynistic, but damn, she's got a face for radio. >_>
Still, she's 16, could just be an ugly duckling. Although if she takes up boxing like she intends to, she'll grow into a bruised swan...