By Lisa Quiding
Last week a Kamloops man, who used to reside in Barriere, was confronted in public by members of Creep Catchers who say the man was meeting a minor boy at Riverside Park in Kamloops for illicit purposes.
Creep Catchers say they are a group of individuals brought together to help prevent the exploitation of children and young adults. They are building their presence across Canada to catch and expose online child/teen predators as well as similar topics such as online safety/child protection.
Creep Catchers are undercover on social media sites posing as minors. When the "minors" are contacted by potential predators (adults) and arrangements are made for a meeting, the adults are then met by the Creep Catchers group instead, and are exposed. Video surveillance of the meeting and documentation of the communication with decoys are posted on their website www.creepcatchers.ca and shared through other social networks in the hopes of preventing other illicit meetings with actual minors.
According to creepcatchers.ca, the confrontation in Riverside Park resulted from an illicit conversation via Grindr, an online social network. Creep Catchers posted a video showing the chat conversation, and also the meeting between the 48-year-old man and the Creep Catchers' decoy; who stated to the man during the chat that he was only 14-years-old.
The members of the group met the man to expose him and give him the opportunity to say why he was there to meet a minor. The man was informed of Creep Catchers' purpose and told “... all of this is going to be uploaded on creepcatchers.ca”; at which time he walked away, saying he was getting a lawyer.
Due to the fact no charges have been laid at the time of this posting, the man has not been named in this article.
Creep Catchers states on their website "We do not condone or endorse any harm coming to these individuals, minus public shaming and outing. Any such violence towards anyone portrayed in our content will be frowned upon".
The website encourages sharing of the videos and posts to help Creep Catchers continue with what they are doing, but encourages the public not to assault these individuals or their property; "WE SHARE YOUR DISGUST but violence won’t help! It’ll just let the haters have something to pick apart at!"
If you, or you know someone who has been a victim of sexual exploitation call your local RCMP or VictimLinkBC at 1-800-563-0808.
For more information on Creep Catchers visit their website http://creepcatcher.ca/partners/category/kamloops/