A Japanese woman is literally facing jail time after killing her husband’s digital avatar in MapleStory. The virtual murder was the result of a sudden divorce, and instead of taking out her frustrations with a real murder, decided online was probably the way to go.

Oh, but apparently that’s still illegal in Japan. Well, not the virtual murder part, but the fact that she “hacked” her way onto her husband’s account to kill the character (she knew his password because they were well, married). And how did the police get involved? Is there some sort of MapleStory virtual homicide department? No, but when the husband found out his precious avatar was dead, he called them himself.

I’m tempted to chalk this up to some crazy Japanese cyber culture phenomenon, but really, I could easily see this happening in America. Did your best mate steal your girlfriend? Log onto his World of Warcraft account and give away all his weapons and armor to n00bs. Get in a fight with your friend? Go on their Second Life account and start telling people how much you love little boys until you get the account banned and the FBI shows up at their house. Alright maybe that’s a bit extreme, but not as extreme as getting your wife arrested for killing your MapleStory avatar.