Fort Mill police say she clicked to meet a babysitter and saw more than she wanted to
When a Fort Mill woman logged on to video chat with the woman she was thinking of hiring as a babysitter, it wasn’t the babysitter on the other end.
What followed was an indecent exposure report, and concern about lewd video that may not be an isolated incident.
The Fort Mill mom who reported the incident said the incident was disturbing, but could have been worse. Even though her 6-month-old son was sitting on her lap for the online chat.
“I have three older children of knowing age,” she said. “I’m glad they didn’t see it. They would have had questions.”
Good and bad
“Social media lends itself to a lot of things that are positive and negative,” said Maj. Bryan Zachary with the Fort Mill Police Department. “Any time you have something that’s as broad-based as that is, people are going to use it for all sorts of things.”
The Fort Mill mom told police she had an ad up in the Facebook classifieds in search of a babysitter. A woman named Jennifer, at least judging by the profile, responded. Several messages followed asking for Jennifer’s qualifications and experience caring for children.
Then “Jennifer” sent a Facebook chat invite.
According to the police report, the screen initially was black when the Fort Mill woman accepted the invite July 25. The first image to come up was of a “younger white male” masturbating. The woman told police the man’s face wasn’t visible on the video, but that he was young, white and “muscular in nature.”
The woman told police she clicked the disconnect button as soon as she saw the image, and that the person running the “Jennifer” account instantly blocked her on Facebook. She said she reached back out on Facebook to see if anyone else had had similar experiences. The woman told police “several other women” online stated similar incidents had happened to them with different Facebook accounts used.
Zachary said in Fort Mill, there only has been the one incident reported to date.
“To my knowledge we have not had any other reports in our jurisdiction,” he said. “When they see those comments on Facebook, that could be anyone, anywhere.”
Zachary said the incident is similar to much publicized cases nationwide of criminal activity related to purchases and hiring for services online. For services in the home, particularly something like babysitting, it’s important for people to get references, a criminal history check and whatever other information they can before hiring someone.
Which it appears from the report, the Fort Mill woman was doing.
“It sounds like she was, and it’s commendable she wanted to see the person, talk to the person, see who you’re dealing with,” Zachary said.
Police: ‘Overly cautious’ is OK
Police urge caution with any online transactions. Tips like meeting in public places to buy or sell items rather than in homes, is one. Working with the most reputable companies and providers is another. The Tega Cay Police Department, for example, has video-monitored designated sports in its parking lot for online-based transactions.
Zachary said people should be particularly sure of the person they are doing business with when it comes to in-home services.
“I don’t think that there’s a way that you can be overly cautious,” he said. “I don’t think you can take too many steps to be secure.”
The “Jennifer” profile included a picture of a girl, and the person on that end reached out first to the Fort Mill woman, who said it took a moment to register when she saw who was really behind the profile.
“I turned it off as fast as I could,” the mom said. “I just kind of sat there in shock.”
The mom said she posted online about the experience and found others who posted similar stories. She believes it was “definitely the same person” from her chat video.
“As soon as I did, people started blowing the feed up, messaging me like crazy,” the mom said. “They all sent me their screen shots, told me their stories.”
Others online posted not only of explicit videos, but of potentially meeting up in person.
“It was a little scary,” the Fort Mill mom said. “I was one of the lucky ones where he just exposed himself. There were other girls on there where he was trying to meet up. And that’s scary.”
This story was originally published August 2, 2018 at 6:18 PM.