Wednesday, July 4, 2007

Laptop thief may get life

Online dating may be mainstream by now, but a recent California court decision contains yet another cautionary tale for anyone inclined to be overly trusting of Internet matchups.

The lesson for daters: If your inaugural encounter with an online paramour begins with a request for money and accolades for your laptop, move on. The lesson for thieves: If you steal your Net paramour's laptop, under California's three-strikes law you could be facing <A HREF="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6194198.html?tag=nl.e550">life in prison.</A>

Earlier this week, a state appeals court in Los Angeles upheld a guilty verdict against a man named Ronnie Henning. According to court papers, he burglarized the apartment of a woman he met through an Internet personals site, made off with her laptop and certain accessories, and promptly sold them to a pawn shop for $250--but not before wiping her hard drive and changing the administrator's username to one identical to his online dating alias.

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