FBI searches North End apartment of man convicted of driving cross country to threaten a teen over dispute in online game

The Globe reports FBI agents who spent the day searching an apartment at 143 Fulton St. were looking for evidence related to the activities of Trevor Lucas, released last summer from a federal sentence for driving to Wisconsin to try to kidnap at gunpoint a teenager with whom he'd had a disagreement in the "World of Warcraft" game in 2009.

Lucas, 30, was arrested today and was scheduled to face a hearing on whether he should have his "supervised release" after he was let out of prison revoked. Court records have yet to be updated with the status of the hearing this evening.

According to court records, in 2011, after 18 months of planning, Lucas, then a Gloucester resident, drove to Madison, WI to confront a 17-year-old with whom he'd had a disagreement in the online game. Prosecutors say Lucas made sexual advances towards the teen, who then put him on an "ignore" list. Lucas got the teen to stop "ignoring" him on payment of $5,000 in game currency, but then he started the advances again, the teen put him back on the list and refused to give Lucas his game currency back.

After digging a couple of holes in the woods in Gloucester that were large enough for a body, Lucas drove to Madison with "an arsenal of weapons, restraints and rubber gloves." When he knocked on the teen's door, though, the teen's mother answered. He pointed a gun at her, but she screamed and slammed the door on him and he drove away - he was arrested by Massachusetts State Police on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Weston.

Lucas pleaded guilty to one count of brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence - prosecutors dropped an attempted-kidnapping charge as part of a plea - and a judge sentenced him to 17 1/2 years in prison - later reducing that to 11 1/2 years.

His lawyer had asked for a sentence of just seven years, arguing that Lucas had Asperger's Syndrome, attention deficit and bipolar disorder and that his cross-country trek may have been sparked by complications of a drug he had been prescribed for sleep apnea. Also, the lawyer argued, the holes he dug in Gloucester were too long and not deep enough to serve as burial sites.

Some of the agents seen entering and leaving 143 Fulton St. today wore shirts identifying them as members of the Hazardous Evidence Response team, which often responds to incidents and scenes that potentially involve weapons of mass destruction. However, the FBI said the public was not at risk.

Innocent, etc.