ELM MOTT, TEXAS - A sailor who got mad when someone mocked him as a "nerd" over the Internet climbed into his car and drove 1,300 miles from Virginia to Texas to teach the other guy a lesson.

As he made his way toward Texas, Russell Tavares, a weapons-system petty officer, posted photos online showing the welcome signs at several states' borders to show his progress.

When he finally arrived, Tavares burned the guy's trailer down. The damage was in excess of $50.000.

This week, Tavares, 27, was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading no contest to arson.

The feud started when John G. Anderson, 59, who runs a haunted house near Waco, joined a picture-sharing Web site and posted his artwork and political views.

After Anderson blocked some people from his page because of insults and foul language, they retaliated by making obscene, digitally altered pictures of him, he said.

One of the people with whom Anderson traded barbs was Tavares, investigators said. Tavares boiled over when Anderson called him a nerd and posted a digitally altered photo making Tavares look like a skinny boy in high-water pants, holding a gun and a laptop under a "Revenge of the Nerds" sign.

Tavares obtained Anderson's real name and hometown from Anderson's Web page about his Museum of Horrors Haunted House.

Tavares would not let the feud go even at his sentencing. According to police, Tavares took cell-phone photos of Anderson in the courtroom. Authorities ordered the photos erased.

Anderson, a former Marine and Vietnam vet, said he continues to be harassed online and found bullet holes in a door to his business.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

I especially love the part where he was posting pics showing his progess as he got closer to the guy.... It is something that I would SO do too....

What....no one else has wanted to do this too?

pardonme4livin said:

No

Photowhore!

minneapolisgenius said:

jess555ja said:

I wonder how he had his exact address though.