College Student Went Undercover to Catch Pedophiles and Nabbed a Decorated Cop
A college student-turned pedophile hunter, went undercover to catch child predators online and low and behold—he caught a cop.
By Matt Agorist
TheFreeThoughtProject.com
June 14, 2019
San Francisco, CA — A 20-year-old college student named Ethan is making headlines this week after he used a Snapchat filter to go undercover and ensnare pedophiles trying to lure children. He was successful and his catch was a San Mateo cop.
Ethan — who is not using his last name out of fear that police may retaliate — told authorities he had a female friend who had been molested as a child. This was the apparent impetus behind his undercover scheme to go online and catch the predators.
Ethan used a Shapchat filter called gender-switch to make himself look like a female child and created a fake profile on Tinder under the name “Esther.” A single man messaged him. This man was San Mateo police officer Robert Davies.
“I believe he messaged me, ‘Are you down to have some fun tonight?’ and I decided to take advantage of it,” Ethan said, according to NBC Bay Area.
Ethan then used a different app to text Davies and told the officer that he was underage and asked if that bothered him. According to police, who were given screen shots of the texts, Davies responded he did not care Esther was a child.
“We started texting on there, and it got a lot more explicit,” Ethan said.
Ethan told reporters that he was simply looking to nab any predator he could and had no idea that he was going to catch a decorated cop.
“I was just looking to get someone,” Ethan said. “He just happened to be a cop.”
According to NBC Bay Area, Davies was recently given an award for his excellence in police leadership.
After Ethan exchanged multiple texts with the officer, he then sent all the screen shots into Crime Stoppers. The next week, San Jose police arrested Davies on suspicion of discussing sexual activity with a minor on social media.
The decorated cop has since been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the San Mateo Police Department. San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer released a statement about the arrest:
“This alleged conduct, if true, is in no way a reflection of all that we stand for as a Department, and is an affront to the tenets of our department and our profession as a whole. As San Mateo police officers, we have sworn an oath to serve and protect our communities. I can assure you that we remain steadfast to this commitment to serving our community with “Professionalism, Integrity, and Excellence.”
Davies now faces a charge of contacting a minor to commit a felony, police said.
According to Mercury News, Davies isn’t the first San Mateo officer to run afoul of the law in recent years. Noah Winchester, who is no longer employed by the police department, is scheduled to stand trial later this year on charges he sexually assaulted several women while on duty in 2015.
