The story of Chilliwack teens who dressed as super-heroes to out online sex perverts has gone viral.
RCMP Cpl. Tammy Hollingsworth, the detachment’s media liaison, says she hasn’t had time to put out a proper news release to stress the danger in which the teens placed themselves — because she keeps getting interrupted by calls from reporters.
“This is not something the RCMP condones,” Hollingsworth says. “We do have people who do this kind of thing, who know how to document evidence to support charges in court.”
The three Chilliwack teenagers, two 17-year-olds, an 18-year-old, and one 20-year-old, understand this now, she says, and have admitted they “made mistake” posting their videos of men lured by promises of sex with a fictional 15-year-old girl on YouTube.
“They didn’t realize it would get so big,” Hollingsworth says. “It’s to the point, the scope has gone way beyond whatever they intended it would.”
She says the four boys got the idea from a TV newsmagazine show.
But what motivated them in the first place to dress up as superheroes Batman and Flash to out child predators is still not clear.
“We’re re-interviewing them at this time,” Hollingsworth said. “There’s still a lot of questions. We don’t have all the answers yet.”
It’s also not clear whether the superheroes are facing charges.
rfreeman@theprogress.com
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