Have You Met My Imaginary Online Boyfriend?

Are women you meet online, who may, or may not, be figments of your imagination, and for whom you have no contact information the latest trend in flimsy alibis?

Tom Hackbarth goes looking for a girlfriend.

Tom Hackbarth, a Minnesota State Representative, started the trend when he used armed staking of a woman he met online, who may only exist in his imagination, to explain his presence in the parking lot of a Planned Parenthood clinic.

And now we have the story of a suicidal father who claims to have entrusted his three sons to the care of a woman with whom he had an online relationship but whose existence police hasn't been able to confirm.