Internet Vigilantes Lure Center City Man to His Arrest
When that 13-year-old girl you're chatting with on Instagram isn't.
Left: Philadelphia resident Eric Rooney, who was arrested for trying to have sex with a child thanks to a sting operation by the internet vigilante group Predator Poachers (photo via Bensalem Police Department). Right: A Predator Poachers t-shirt, available on the Predator Poachers website.
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Predator Poachers Vigilante Group Lures Philadelphia’s Eric Rooney to His Arrest
Things on the internet aren’t always what they seem. This is a lesson that Center City resident Eric Rooney just learned.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office has charged Rooney with several felonies related to a visit he made to a Bensalem apartment complex. According to police, Rooney showed up at the Creekside Apartments intent on having sexual intercourse with what he believed to be a 13-year-old girl he had been chatting with explicitly for several months on Instagram.
But when Rooney showed up to the designated location, he found not a 13-year-old girl but members of the Texas-based internet vigilante group Predator Poachers. It turns out that there never was a 13-year-old girl at all. He had been chatting unsuspectingly with adult members of Predator Poachers the whole time.
The Predator Poachers contacted the Bensalem Police, and officers showed up and arrested Rooney. According to the affidavit of probable cause in the case, Rooney told police that he had “made a mistake” and that his intent for going to the apartment was, in fact, to have sex with a girl he believed to be 13 years old. Police also say that he admitted to them that he views and distributes “child sexual abuse material,” as investigators put it, and that the victims of the child sexual abuse depicted range from 8 to 12 years old.
While Bensalem police conceded that there was a “positive outcome” in this particular case, they said that they do not encourage the Predator Poachers or other internet vigilante groups to pursue this kind of activity. “Anyone who has information about a possible child predator is requested to call the police before making contact so that the safety of all involved can be maintained,” police said in a statement.
Rooney remains in jail, unable to post ten percent of his $500,000 bail. He reportedly lived in the Media section of Delaware County prior to moving to Center City.
For more on Predator Poachers and internet vigilante groups in general, check out this 2022 New Yorker deep dive: “The Disturbing Rise of Amateur Predator-Hunting Stings.”
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