Family fears boy lured by gamers
Teen who ran away after Xbox dispute 'addicted' to playing online war game, father says
Oct 22, 2008 04:30 AM
Theresa Boyle
Staff Reporter
Steve Crisp's best hope for his missing 15-year-old son is that the lad is hiding out in a luxury cottage somewhere northeast of Barrie.
But his worst fear is that Brandon, a Grade 10 student, has ventured too far into the fantasy world of a video game to which he was "addicted" and has run into trouble.
"I'm worried he has met someone online through this game. It could be organized crime or someone involved in Internet gambling. Pedophiles can stalk kids through these games," the tormented father said in an interview last night.
Brandon ran away from home in north Barrie nine days ago and has not been seen or heard from since. He left home following a dispute with his parents over the Xbox online war game, Call of Duty 4, which he spent countless hours and days playing over the last 18 months.
"I told him he wouldn't be getting his Xbox back. He said, `Then I'm going to leave home.'"
Steve called his son's bluff and even helped him pack his knapsack.
"I really thought he would be home later that day with his tail between his legs," said Steve, who remembers running away from home once when he was a boy.
Brandon took off on his yellow bike, which was spotted just hours later in a ditch about eight kilometres northeast of the family's home. Steve suspects the 5-foot-3, 100-pound boy was on his way to meet some friends in Oro-Medonte Township. His three best buddies from school were also members of his "Call of Duty Clan."
Steve has since learned from these friends that Brandon may be part of another clan, but the friends have no idea who those members are. He fears the boy was lured into meeting someone from that clan and is now being held against his will.
Barrie police and OPP have conducted ground and aerial searches and yesterday added reinforcements, The Canadian Press reported. Police and the Crisp family yesterday urged cottagers and homeowners in the area to check their properties for any sign of Brandon.
"It's a very high-end area of Barrie where there are multi-million-dollar cottages owned by (people) who only use them two or three months a year. My best hope is that Brandon is having a great time, eating all their food," Steve said.
Brandon has never run away before and would've called if he knew of his family's distress, he added.
"He has a good heart," Steve said of his son, who was a straight-A student until his obsession with gaming started in 2006. The boy purchased Call of Duty with Christmas money and Steve subscribed to Xbox online at his son's urging.
"It was peer pressure. He wanted to play with his three best friends but they live half an hour away. So they would put their headsets on, meet up online and play a game," Steve explained.
But he said the game became an "addiction" and "obsession" for the teen who played against other teams around the world, staying up all night and spending his summer holidays indoors.
Steve said he had taken the game away from Brandon more than 20 times in the past, including the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend after learning the boy had skipped school the day before and taken $20 off the kitchen table, meant for one of his two sisters. But the following day, Brandon was playing the game again after finding it hidden in his father's bathroom vanity. So Steve, a renovator, removed it for good, this time taking it out of the house to his workshop.
"I just want him to know we love him dearly. It doesn't matter what he's done. He won't be in trouble when he comes home. We're going to work things out," his father said.
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