I Raided a Post Office, Got Burned by Kim Dotcom, Dodged Gravenreuth, and Outlived Them All

The Beginning#

In 1985, I was 10 years old with a breadbox C64. I didn’t know there was a “scene.” I just played games and watched demos.

By 1987, I founded X-Rated. I was 12.

We wanted contacts. The Beastie Boys had contacts. They had a P.O. Box.

So we walked into the post office and convinced the postman to hand over their mail. Two bags. Disks. Addresses. International connections.

I was 12 years old. We called it “swag.”

My father was Helmut Renz — Vorstand at Tela-Versicherung, running computer salvage operations for German insurers since 1979.

One month, the phone bill hit 1,000 Deutsche Mark. International calls. Scene contacts. Swapping.

He didn’t kill me. I still don’t know why.

Then there was Kim Schmitz.

You know him now as Kim Dotcom — Megaupload, FBI raid, New Zealand mansion, international fugitive.

In 1988, he was just Kimble. And he burned me.

I was 13. Details stay buried. But I learned early: the scene had sharks.

In 1990, they caught me. Police. Investigation.

But the crimes were committed when I was 13.

Germany has rules. Minors walk. I walked.

Günter Freiherr von Gravenreuth made a career hunting scene kids. Abmahnungen. Lawsuits. Destruction.

He worked with Kimble. Kimble snitched. Kids got letters.

I never got one.

Gravenreuth died in 2010. Broke. Legally troubled. Suicide.

Name	Then	Now
Kimble	Burned a 13-year-old	Hiding from FBI in New Zealand
Gravenreuth	Hunted teenagers	Dead
Wander	X-Rated coder	Rest in peace
Me	Founded X-Rated at 12, raided a post office, got burned, got caught	Still here. Mass-pissing on bad infrastructure.

My father restored fire-damaged mainframes in 1979.

I restore broken infrastructure in 2024.

Same instinct. Different fires.

The scene taught me:

I’m still here.

They’re not.

— Alexander Renz, XRATED Mike, 1987–present