Chilliwack teens recreate To Catch a Predator
Posted November 15, 2011 12:30 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHILLIWACK (NEWS1130) – Three teenagers in Chilliwack are in trouble with police, after producing hidden-camera style crime fighting videos and posting them on YouTube. Using websites like Plenty of Fish and Craigslist, they lured men to local McDonald’s restaurants and other locations in town, believing they were meeting a 15-year-old girl.
The teen confronting the man would be dressed in a superhero costume, usually appearing as Batman. In one video a second superhero, The Flash, is also seen.
The videos appear to be based on NBC’s To Catch a Predator series, which aired a few years ago. The teens called their series “To Troll a Predator.”
“What I can tell you is that our Serious Crimes Unit is currently investigating,” says Corporal Tammy Hollingsworth with Chilliwack RCMP. “They have spoken with one of the three boys responsible so far. We will be conducting two other interviews today of the other two boys.”
Two of the boys are 17-years-old, the other is 18. All of them live in the Chilliwack area and they apparently produced four crime fighting videos.
“They have taken down all of the posts on YouTube and have made a statement on their Facebook page. I don’t think they really realized the scope of this and what the consequences could have been” says Hollingsworth.
“Our main issue as far as the police go right now is their [the teens] personal safety. This is why we intervened at this point and did what we had to do.”
“We have not even spoken about charges yet. We don’t even know, really, what we have. At this point, charges are not being considered.”
Hollingsworth says the teens have posted the following on the “To Troll a Predator” Facebook page, explaining why the videos have been taken down.
“The future of our channel is unknown. Due to police intervention we will be discontinuing the To Troll a Predator series. I hope those who viewed the videos shared many laughs with us while we could. Hope you can understand.”
The officer says none of the men seen in the video series have been identified.
