Some folks are taking stolen digital property in an action RPG a wee bit too far.

Over in the US of A, a person by the name of Joshua G.Spellman was accused of second-degree murder over a Diablo 2-related dispute (via The Columbian). The 36-year old allegedly shot and killed 34-year old Andrew Dickson because of a heated argument involving an unprotected Diablo 2 room and stolen loot.

See, Spellman, Dickson, and a third person were playing Diablo 2 together. Both of them were playing the game from separate places on the same property in Washington, communicating via headset. Dickson was upset because a random player entered the game and stole a piece of loot the party hasn’t collected. The game apparently wasn’t password-protected, which led to Dickson cursing at Spellman.

Spellman said the rant went on for three to five minutes, with him telling Dickson to calm down or he was going to get shot. Probably fed up with all this, Spellman took his gun from behind his computer and went to the main house on the property. Spellman fired the gun into the air before entering the house. He spoke to Dickson’s father before Dickson came into the picture. Dickson “closed the distance” between the two before Spellman shot him.

Dickson was shot in the torso. He went through surgery but died from his injuries in the hospital. As of this point in writing, Spellman is requested to be held on a US$2 million bail, stating that he should be reprimanded for shooting someone and killing them over a “seemingly minor incident”. The arraignment will be done on 29th December.

Moral of the story? Do double-check if your Diablo 2 rooms are password-protected, and make sure it’s not “password” or “guest”.