A California man is facing multiple charges after he traveled to Ohio with plans to leave the state with a 14-year-old girl he met in an online video game.
According to court records, 21-year-old Austin Scott was charged with pandering obscenity, importuning, contributing to the unruliness of a child and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles.
Scott flew to the Cleveland area on Jan. 12 from Los Angeles and traveled to Elyria, according to a police report.
Authorities were notified about the situation when a resident contacted officers about a man knocking on doors asking to charge his cell phone. When police located Scott, he told them he had flown in from California and was in town to meet his girlfriend but he was not allowed in her house until her parents were asleep, the report said.
When police went to the house where Scott said his girlfriend lived they spoke to a woman who said she had a 14-year-old daughter.
The teen told police that on Jan. 1 she met a man — who she believed was 18 — in a video game and had been talking with him through a computer chat program and through text message.
The 14-year-old gave permission for police to search her phone and when they did, officers found multiple sexually explicit text and picture messages to Scott.
Scott told the girl the two of them would run away together to Tennessee and "make a new life for themselves," according to the police report. He also told the girl he bought a plane ticket and was coming to Ohio to meet her.
Police found three packed suitcases in the girl's home. The teen told officers she planned to take them with her to Tennessee when she left with Scott.
Scott is scheduled to appear in Elyria Municipal Court on Jan. 22.
