XII-"To Catch a Predator: Scary Chats and a Repeat 'Predator'" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

Two firsts in the Long Beach, Calif. investigation: A man from a previous sting shows up again; while our presence in town is leaked online

Byline: Chris Hansen; 2007-01-30; Dateline NBC; 

Report: "To Catch A Predator" - Chris Hansen - NBC Dateline

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Long Beach, Calif. — We’ve always been aware that the men coming into our undercover houses could be dangerous, but as we set up our “To Catch A Predator” operation in Long Beach, California, the very first man who arrives has us especially worried. 29 year-old Michael Warrecker, an unemployed computer technician uses the frightening screen name “can_i_rape_you_anally.” He thinks he’s coming to meet a girl who said she was 13. What Warrecker apparently doesn’t know, is he’s really been chatting with an adult decoy from Perverted-Justice. That’s an online watchdog group Dateline uses as a consultant to do what it normally does, go into chat rooms, mostly at Yahoo and AOL, set up computer profiles, and—in this case —pretend to be children—under the age of 14 who are interested in sex.  In his online chat, Warrecker tells the decoy, “Maybe we should hook up...” and says he would like to have anal sex with her. The decoy says: “Ouch. I think that would hurt a lot.”

Description:Part one of a two part Dateline "Predator" series in Long Beach, CA.

Rights: Acces to online material.