Alleged Cyber-Criminal in Elberta

The town of Elberta is a small community of fifteen hundred people. It's also the home of alleged cyber-criminal 23 year old Christopher Wayne Cooper.

"Don't know the gentleman, never heard of him, never seen him before," says interim Police Chief Julie Joyner. "Didn't even realize he lived in Elberta until all that came out."

"All that" involves a federal indictment over a cyber-attack of the website, PayPal in retaliation for suspending WikiLeaks accounts. Cooper along with thirteen other defendants are accused of using "hactivism" to achieve political goals. But folks in Elberta have never heard of him before according to mayor Marvin Williams. "I've asked people if they knew this guy or where he come from or anything. We did a great deal of research and we haven't come up with anybody knowing this guy or where he came from. All we know is the feds said he's got an address of Elberta, Alabama nobody told us where it is."

"I checked our files to see if we had ever arrested him before or had any contact before," says Joyner.

Cooper did have one run in with the law. According to court documents, he plead guilty as a youthful offender in 2010 for stealing a computer.

Cooper was picked up by the feds earlier this week. His Twitter account was inactive until this afternoon when he started getting tweets of support. Something he won't find in Elberta. "I think what he's trying to do is hide amongst our good people and thinks he can blend in," says Williams.

Cooper and 13 others named in the indictments have been ordered to appear in federal court in San Jose, California, where the indictment originated, September 1st.