Posted: Feb 26, 2010 6:59 PM
Updated: Feb 26, 2010 6:59 PM
TUCSON - News 4 was granted unprecedented access to a team of Tucson police officers who go after internet predators. We've been taking you behind with these officers for the past few weeks now.
Sights are set on a man that detectives say wanted to have sex with an underage boy. Their takedown was caught on tape during an exclusive crime trackers investigation.
For nearly one month, police say a 28-year-old man has been texting what he believes is an underage boy. Detective Dan Barry is posing as the child.
"He wants to meet," Barry says. "He's getting of work at six. He's been texting me all day long. He's really excited about meeting."
Detective Barry found the target after putting an ad on a popular website.
"He said something about he was a jock-type looking for another jock-type for an exchange of oral sex," Barry says.
The suspect works at a local health club.
"Name tag of the guy working the front counter - there was ‘Frank the Tank,'" says a police officer over the police radio. "That's it - Frank the Tank. If that means anything...he told me his name was Frank. Ten-four, that's going to be him."
"He said, ‘Okay, little bro - I'll see you in a bit.' Ever since I've started communicating with him, he calls me his little bro," Barry says.
The meeting is set.
"We're thinking that he's going to get off on Alvernon. He can catch a bus there," announces an officer over the radio.
"I can't wait to see my little bro," reads another text message from the suspect.
The surveillance team keeps tabs on their suspect.
"He hasn't looked up from that text message once," an officer calls out over the radio. He's getting close to the meeting place.
"There he is: gray shirt, black pants," calls out an officer. "He's southbound, walking on the east side of the street."
"Is that him right there with the hat?" asks an officer on the radio. "That's him with the hat. Patrol, go ahead and move in there. Doing the take down right now - doing the take down."
Within seconds, the officers move in and take the suspect down, then haul him off to jail.
"It went really well," says Sergeant Tony Sabori. "Everybody is safe and we got our suspect."
"If he wouldn't have communicated with us, he would've found himself a real child, and we would've had bigger problems," Barry says.
This latest suspect takedown is an example of different agencies coming together to take another suspected predator off Tucson streets.
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