When Steve Thiele registered himself as the owner of miccosukeetribeofindians.com, he thought one day he might be able to mine electronic gold.

So when the tribe's attorney called him earlier this week demanding the domain name, he knew he could cash in.

''I told them I'm not looking to sell it, but you can buy it,'' said Thiele, who also owns www.miccosukeetribeofindiansofflorida.com and a site named after tribe chairman Billy Cypress, www.billycypress.com.

For the names, he claims the tribe offered him $5,000.

He said no.

Then, $20,000. $50,000, $100,000. No. No. No.

Thiele, a former bodyguard with ties to the Miami River Cops with 20-inch biceps, is unwilling to budge for a penny less than $500,000.

Now the tribe is threatening legal action.

''I was using it to start a Miccosukee fan site,'' said Thiele, 45, who served seven years in prison for beating up a former banker and once consider himself a friend of Armando ''Scarface'' Garcia. ''If they think they got a case, let's have a jury decide. I'm not worried about that. I've been in court before.'' All his sites lead to 1stunna.com. The web page has very little to do with the tribe's culture -- it's home page features a shirtless Thiele, crouching in front of a red Dodge Charger with 24-inch wheels, as hip-hop music plays in the background. It also displays old newspaper articles about his criminal past.

''I'm clean now,'' said Thiele, who works as a bodyguard in Homestead. 'Totally legit.' A letter penned by Dexter Lehtinen, the tribe's general counsel, is giving Thiele until Thursday to hand over the domain names before taking legal action.

Howard Neu, a Broward lawyer specializing in Internet domain name cases, said he thinks Thiele's chances of winning any sort of legal case are slim because of copyright laws.

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