Parental Control App Leads to Sting Operation

Why don’t you have a seat over there? An Oklahoma father inadvertently captured his own episode of “To Catch a Predator” when Family Time, a parental control app, tipped him off to a 33-year-old man sending sexually explicit messages to his 15-year-old daughter. The family lured the offender to their house, who thought he’d be getting some but ended up getting tackled and arrested instead. Thanks to AceGoober for this one.

The father lured the man to the family's backyard by posing as his daughter online. On the day of the takedown, the teen's stepmother waited for the man in a tent in the backyard while the father and four other family members waited inside the house. "As he walked in and looked into the tent, my first nephew jumped out, my cousin jumped out after that and I came with the zip ties," the father recalled. "He admitted immediately that he was there to have sex with my daughter." Surveillance video captured the sting. Police told KSWO that the family members held the man down until officers got there.

Hmm...if this was a daughter of mine, I would not have cameras to record what could happen. Just saying.

I am very surprised the police did not arrest the family for false imprisonment or some other bs.

I am also surprised a dog did not get shot.

so bad parenting leads to his daughter who lures older men for sex. Yeah, i'm sure she's never done that before.
Instead of letting the police handle it, they lure him in? The whole thing reeks of awful choices.

leeleatherwood said:

I am very surprised the police did not arrest the family for false imprisonment or some other bs.
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This may shock you, but citizens are empowered to detain and arrest. Its part and parcel with being a citizen.The thing is, you better be fucking right and you still run the risk of being sued civilly, and you dont have qualified immunity like police do.. I personally would have let the police handle it, way too much liability in doing it yourself.

The parents of the teen better be having a serious talk about that stuff. I chalk this up to bad parenting. Good that they are monitoring parental controls, but they need to do a better job at monitoring all communications. Didn't the parent teach them to say no to strangers? According to the article, the father "LURED" the perp. Isn't that entrapment?

midnightfrolic said:

The parents of the teen better be having a serious talk about that stuff. I chalk this up to bad parenting. Good that they are monitoring parental controls, but they need to do a better job at monitoring all communications. Didn't the parent teach them to say no to strangers? According to the article, the father "LURED" the perp. Isn't that entrapment?

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The news story is a bit sensationalist and light on details. I would chalk this up to good parenting albeit misdirected; teens will still do stupid things regardless of under / over parenting.

Now on how they decided to handle it themselves, they should probably should have let the police handle it.

If they were not careful and knowledgeable of what they said to the perp on the chat, his lawyer could build a case for entrapment. If they had let the police do it instead, they are experts in exactly what they can and can't say to avoid compromising the case.

Family invites middle-aged man to gangbang, attacks him upon arrival.

If it wasn't for the parents, the kid may have disappeared.

The problem here is that the article and the inside edition stories don't add up very well. The inside edition story makes it sound like the girl invited the guy over to have sex (or at least agreed to it), the parents found out and captured him when he got there. The article tells a different story about how they pretended to be the girl online and setup the meeting themselves. Then once he arrived captured him. Not only that but the video states the dad ran out and tackled him while the article says it was another family member and that the dad was the one that zip tied him. so they can't even get what should be a simple story straight now.

Which leads to other questions. how did this guy start talking to the girl? did she do anything herself that invited this type of behavior (which means that the parents need to deal with her behavior) or was this just some creep that got her information somehow and started to harass her, in which case they need to talk to her about being forth coming with stuff like that as an app shouldn't be how you find out that some guy is trying to come after your daughter.

lironmiron said:

If they were not careful and knowledgeable of what they said to the perp on the chat, his lawyer could build a case for entrapment. If they had let the police do it instead, they are experts in exactly what they can and can't say to avoid compromising the case.

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The police have to be the ones doing the entrapment, for it to be entrapment.

Parenting issues aside, this could've been a very different article if the guy had showed up armed.