A 42-year-old woman from Texas who flew up to Canada to meet her 16-year-old World of Warcraft paramour received a nasty surprise when she got home: A quick trip to jail and criminal charges for soliciting a minor.
Our story begins in late December, when 16-year-old Andrew Kane of Barrie, Ontario, asked his parents if they’d drive him to a nearby hotel to meet a 42-year-old woman from Texas who he’d met on the internet. His parents refused, but amazingly didn’t seem to feel the need to follow up on the situation. At 2 a.m. the next day, Kane’s mother heard the front door open and then discovered that her son had disappeared, a turn of events that came as a surprise to absolutely nobody on the face of the planet except Mrs. Kane and, perhaps, her husband.
Two days later, the young lad was discovered in the company of one Lauri Price, a middle-aged woman from Texas who had met Kane while playing World of Warcraft. The couple were found at a local Future Shop store thanks to a tip from the public. Neither Kane nor Price expressed remorse over the incident, according to Sergeant Robert Allen of the Barrie Police, and because the age of consent in Canada is 16, no charges were laid.
Price hopped on a plane home and that was that – until she landed. It turns out that as part of their investigation, Barrie police had contacted authorities in Texas, where the age of consent is 17 and they apparently don’t take too kindly to women in their 40s who chase after boys barely old enough to shave. Price was arrested upon her return to Houston and charged with two counts of online solicitation of a minor and one count of child enticement. She is currently being held in jail, with bail set at $310,000.
As for Kane, it almost sounds like his romantic runaway is the least of his problems: For more than a year he’s reportedly spent “every waking hour” on World of Warcraft and his mother said he “rarely” goes to school because he refuses to stop playing the game. His parents took his computer away from him for a month last year but claim that his psychologist recommended they return it to him as a reward. “We thought he was managing it well, but eventually he was back to his old habits,” his mother said.
Being a stupid parent, sadly, is not a criminal offense in either Canada or the U.S.
Source: Globe and Mail, CBC
