what would you do?

[Wheezer]

this story was posted in another tech forum...interested to hear other peoples take on it....I think he did the right thing, but I just hope what he did didn't screw up the case for the DA......

?I had a long-time customer/friend call me yesterday with a problem. Keep in mind that he is also a doctor and a deacon at his church. He said his laptop wouldn?t boot, so he went out and bought a new one at Staples. The new one is great, but he wondered if I could transfer the data form his old drive. No problem I told him.

So there I am this morning transferring his data over. He said he was really just concerned with his documents and pictures, and then he wanted me to destroy the old drive. I thought I had everything, but there was a 5 gb hole on the old drive I just couldn?t find. I like to be thorough, and I know that sometimes stuff gets scattered all over a hdd. So I started looking. Mean time he was seeing patients. I found a hidden, encrypted folder on the root of the drive called ?finance?. I figured that was probably a pretty important folder. He had given me a sheet with all his passwords on it, so I tried the first one his list; his user logon password. The folder opened. Literally thousands of porn pics. I almost started laughing until I noticed that these pics were of very young girls. We?re talking 11, 12, 13!!! I freaked out.

I grabbed my blackberry and started taking pictures of my work area in his office just to show where the stuff had come from. Then I unplugged his old drive and grabbed it and his old laptop. I told him I needed something from the shop and I?d be right back.

Now this guy knows I do work for the police department. I headed straight to the PD. About half way there he starts burning up my phone. Apparently he noticed that I had left with his old machine. I obviously didn?t answer. When I showed the chief and the state?s attorney what I had discovered, they went into hyperdrive. Immediately two officers were sent to his office to nab him. He wasn?t there. The state?s attorney comes running back into the chief?s office with search warrants. The chief says ?come on!? We jumped into his car, and most of the pd is racing to this guys house with lights and siren.

We got to his house and found the doc?s truck parked crazy in the front yard. Everyone races in, and his wife starts screaming at me before anyone could even announce why we were there. She?s yelling at me, ?what did you do?! Chief he?s the one who put that stuff on my husband?s computer!?, pointing at me. The chief says ?what stuff? we haven?t even said why we?re here. So how do you know what was on the laptop?? That shut her up. She and the doc were hunched over their desktop when we burst in. The warrant was served, and the chief sits down at the computer and starts searching for pics. He looks up at me and says ?I don?t see anything on this machine.? I had him move. I shut down the tower, yanked the hard drive and plugged it into my netbook with the USB adapter. Ran Getdataback to look for deleted files. It found another 20 gb folder they had deleted. The chief was amazed.

So now both the husband and wife are locked up until their bond hearing at least, their kids are at her sister?s house, and the forensic guys from the state police are in town going over everything. Apparently these two had been in the kiddie porn world for years. So far they have found another dozen or so perpetrators in Illinois and Kentucky. Now I have a police escort for at least the next week or so until they determine no one is coming after me. What a day. This is the first and, hopefully, the last time this ever happens. I hope those two do a lot of time behind bars.?

 

[DontMindMe]

hmm...great fiction IMO

 

[KLin]

Sounds like he took down a pretty good sized kiddie porn ring. I would've done the same. :thumbsup:

 

[KLin]

Originally posted by: DontMindMe
hmm...great fiction IMO

Obligatory WWYBYWB?

 

[se7en]

Wow wild story for sure!

 

[Tarrant64]

He did the right thing. Maybe there will be an argument about whether or not he had the right to take his stuff and bring it to the police station but I don't see how that will get anywhere.

I think most of us, if not all, would have done the same thing. Bringing it up to the guy with a "WTF" may have prompted him to kill you. I could totally see that happening with crazy people today. Something like that being exposed to the public would ruin their lives, of course murder does too.

I wouldn't want that kind of guilt knowing someone had that kind of crap on their PC.

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: DontMindMe
hmm...great fiction IMO

Yeah not sure if that is real, sounds too....dramatic

 

[thecoolnessrune]

We had a client bring in a computer filled with child porn as well. We had to report it. The customer was called in and brought to the back to his computer. We brought him out back and he was arrested there.

It was really creepy. It was my first job and I'd only been there about a month

 

[WraithETC]

I grabbed my blackberry and started taking pictures of my work area in his office just to show where the stuff had come from. Then I unplugged his old drive and grabbed it and his old laptop. I told him I needed something from the shop and I?d be right back.

More like:

I grabbed my portable hard drive array and copied everything to it. Luckily its a raid-0 so the write speed is super fast. Then I unplugged everything, grabbed his laptop and some headphones and proceeded to the nearest bathroom. I told him I had some intestinal issues and that I would be awhile and not to be alarmed if he heard strange noises.

 

[meltdown75]

I worked on someone's computer several years ago and found a bunch of kiddie porn. I struggled with what to do for a long time but I finally went to the cops. I think I did the right thing. I just didn't want to ruin the guy's life... but when it came down to it... I thought, if I saved one kid from being exploited or molested or worse, then it was the right move.

It was just weird how the guy asked me to install a new HD and copy everything over... but he also asked why there was no space left on his old HD. it was almost like he was asking me to find that junk :/

Anyhoo that was years ago, and I know the guy never got arrested, so I hope he cleaned up his habit.

I think the guy in the OP did the right thing. I just think that crap should be stamped out where ever it is found.

 

[xSauronx]

Originally posted by: Tarrant64
He did the right thing. Maybe there will be an argument about whether or not he had the right to take his stuff and bring it to the police station but I don't see how that will get anywhere.

I think most of us, if not all, would have done the same thing. Bringing it up to the guy with a "WTF" may have prompted him to kill you. I could totally see that happening with crazy people today. Something like that being exposed to the public would ruin their lives, of course murder does too.

I wouldn't want that kind of guilt knowing someone had that kind of crap on their PC.

i would have turned someone in if i found child porn on their computer, for sure.

but if i was just asked to backup someones data, even if they had given me their passwords, i would have just backed up the encrypted folder and never been nosy about it.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I would of done the same as OP. Except before I headed out the door towards police station I would of punched the guy in the mouth.

 

[olds]

Total shens.

 

[ctark]

I think possession of child porn should be legal. However I think it should be illegal to be involved in any way of producing child porn. If some freak wants to get his jollies off on seeing some little kid naked, then its fine by me if it prevents him from going out and actually doing the act. Sometimes these people are mentally disturbed and cant really help what they are doing anyways.

If these people are involved in these acts with children then they deserve the chair.

 

[goog40]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
I worked on someone's computer several years ago and found a bunch of kiddie porn. I struggled with what to do for a long time but I finally went to the cops. I think I did the right thing. I just didn't want to ruin the guy's life... but when it came down to it... I thought, if I saved one kid from being exploited or molested or worse, then it was the right move.

It was just weird how the guy asked me to install a new HD and copy everything over... but he also asked why there was no space left on his old HD. it was almost like he was asking me to find that junk :/

Anyhoo that was years ago, and I know the guy never got arrested, so I hope he cleaned up his habit.

I think the guy in the OP did the right thing. I just think that crap should be stamped out where ever it is found.

WTF, how did that guy not get arrested?

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: goog40

Originally posted by: meltdown75
I worked on someone's computer several years ago and found a bunch of kiddie porn. I struggled with what to do for a long time but I finally went to the cops. I think I did the right thing. I just didn't want to ruin the guy's life... but when it came down to it... I thought, if I saved one kid from being exploited or molested or worse, then it was the right move.

It was just weird how the guy asked me to install a new HD and copy everything over... but he also asked why there was no space left on his old HD. it was almost like he was asking me to find that junk :/

Anyhoo that was years ago, and I know the guy never got arrested, so I hope he cleaned up his habit.

I think the guy in the OP did the right thing. I just think that crap should be stamped out where ever it is found.

WTF, how did that guy not get arrested?

All I did was meet with a special cyber crime detective and tell him what I saw. He got back to me later that week and said that the guy had been added to a watch list. They had cruisers going by his house within an hour of my visit.

I did my part, and didn't follow up on it. Putting the information into the hands of the law was all I wanted to do.

 

[Bignate603]

If I found it I'd turn them in without a second thought. If someone is only hurting themselves by their choices I won't stop them but when somebody is doing something that hurts someone else who can't defend themselves I think you have to step in.

Morally you can let somebody destroy their own lives, but shouldn't allow them to do that to someone who's defenseless.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

Does it really matter? That's not the topic of discussion.

 

[buck]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

Yup, a little over the top story.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i was waiting for "i whistled for a cab and what it came near, the license plate said 'fresh' and there were dice in the mirror...."

 

[Baked]

Contact uhohs immediately.

I kid!

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

tough to call shens on it when you know it happens every day. *shrug*

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: peritusONE

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

Does it really matter? That's not the topic of discussion.

It's an open discussion forum. So the topic is what the fuck ever anyone posts. If you want a private discussion, get your own forums and set your own rules.

 

[olds]

Originally posted by: meltdown75

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

tough to call shens on it when you know it happens every day. *shrug*

Child pron does, granted.
A citizen going with the cops to a bust and entering with the cops, never. And that's not the only shens part.

 

[meltdown75]

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat

Originally posted by: peritusONE

Originally posted by: oldsmoboat
Total shens.

Does it really matter? That's not the topic of discussion.

It's an open discussion forum. So the topic is what the fuck ever anyone posts. If you want a private discussion, get your own forums and set you own rules.

bahahhaha. that's some elite stuff right there.