It’s a classic love story: Girl meets boy over Xbox. Girl falls for boy. Girl drives 700 miles to meet boy.
But the girl in this case is 13 years old, and her love interest is a year younger.
Elizabeth Annette Robinson, of Cypress, TX and “Dylan,” of Hodgenville, KY met while playing Call of Duty: Black Ops on Xbox Live. Their gameplay interaction quickly became one that did not solely consist of strategies and creative swearing.
“I can’t b without u” and “I lov u” read the subject lines of emails exchanged between the pair, according to Gawker.
On Sep. 5, following a family argument, Robinson decided to meet her “Internet boyfriend” in person, although her father had recently forbade online contact with him. Robinson stole her mother’s ATM card and her brother’s car and set out on the 900-mile journey to Hodgenville.
Once she was discovered missing, an Amber Alert was issued.
On the road, she faced far fewer obstacles than she did in Black Ops. She was almost able to make it to Nashville, TN.
“It’s amazing she was able to manipulate the roadways,” Harris County Deputy Thomas Gilliland told the Houston Chronicle in an interview.
Outside of Nashville, a state trooper recognized the stolen car and pulled Robinson over. Verifying her description, the trooper took her into custody. She was released to her parents, who had also traveled to Tennessee, on the morning of Sep. 7.
“She was scared. She was nervous. She was still explaining to them that she was trying to get to Hodgenville, Kentucky to see this little boy, Dylan,” mother Tressa Robinson revealed to KHOU.
Before taking Elizabeth home, her parents decided to escort her the rest of the way to Kentucky. Unfortunately, they could not locate Dylan’s home. They returned to Texas on Sep. 8.
Photo courtesy of JohnSeb/Flickr