Why Radnor's Chief Went Undercover As Teen Girl

It was Monday afternoon and Radnor Police Superintendent William Colarulo and Detective T.J. Schreiber were online pretending to be a 15-year-old girl who likes older men.

“Put ‘Yeah with a smiley face’ Colarulo said to Schreiber, who was answering the question of does she like older men.

“Put ‘I’m a little scared right now. Can I trust you?'” he prompted Schreiber to write. Don’t worry, the man replied. He said he would not stalk her.

The website is Omegle.com, and it encourages you to talk with strangers (the opposite of what most parents teach their children). “You can see how easy it is for a child to get in trouble,” Colarulo said. “It took us three tries to get a hold of a pedophile on this site.”

So why are Radnor police officials toying around on this website?

About one month ago, a 12-year-old in the community was chatting with an adult man from another state when he encouraged the child to send nude photos. Parents of the child reported the incident to Radnor Police, who believe the man is in his 20s from New York.

Colarulo said they are working with the Delaware County District Attorney’s office to investigate it further. They do not know where the website is based, but they believe the IP address in this case is out of New York.

Colarulo said he had never heard of the website before, even in law enforcement channels. He said he also did not know many of the acronyms used.

The 12-year-old found out about the website through a friend, Colarulo said.

“Children know more about these websites than we do,” he said. “If your child has a computer in his or her bedroom and you’re not monitoring, shame on you.”

During the police press conference at 3 p.m. Monday there were about 37,000 people on website.

“It goes to show you the numbers of predators we have that use this website,” he said. During the demonstration, Schreiber pulled up a number of live images of men who wanted to live chat on the site, many of them already acting lewdly.

If police could identify the man who communicated with the Radnor 12-year-old, he could face charges of Receiving Child Pornography and Corrupting the Morals of a Minor, among others.