Alert Oklahoma Mom Catches Child Predator In The Act

Dana Hertneky, News 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Investigators say the internet is swimming with child predators, but catching them is a task that takes a lot of time and money.

Agents from the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation (OSBI) say Demetrius Rogers first set his sights on his 14-year-old victim in an online chat room.

Somehow, he got her cell phone number and started texting her. Fortunately, the girl's mother intercepted the texts and began posing as her daughter.

"I asked him what is it you're wanting, what kind of pictures are you wanting and he specifically came out and said specific body parts and I was just blown away," the mother said. She asked not to be identified.

With the help of the OSBI, the mother lured Rogers to the family's home, where police arrested him.

Investigators say in this age of the web, parents' help is invaluable.

"In any given month you can come up with 1,500 to 2,000 IP addresses that have files of interest to law enforcement," OSBI agent Steve Tanner said. He runs the OSBI's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit.

Thanks to a federal grant, the OSBI has one agent dedicated to searching the web for predators just looking to share child porn.

"We've actually found that, here in Oklahoma, that these people that have been pleasuring themselves with child pornography have already done a sexual offense or were planning on one," Tanner said.

The rest of the unit, five agents and one analyst, investigate cases that come to them. 

Investigators say parents need to be proactive, like the mother who helped catch Demetrius Rogers. They believe Rogers may have many other victims, so they're asking anyone who recognizes him to come forward.