Predator: Behind-the-scenes in Long Beach
This (live) blog was meant to coincide with Tuesday's broadcast.
by Chris Hansen, Dateline Correspondent
7:54 p.m.
We've just come off of an eye-opening investigation in Petaluma, Calif. and are now in Long Beach, Ca. Once again we tried to set up the house so that my confrontations with the potential predators would be outside on the back patio. The weather cooperated. The sound of jets taking off and landing at two nearby airports did not.
Plan B, as you're about to see, is to set up a bar and stool inside the house. As a location, Long Beach was perfect: easy to get to and surrounded by several major metropolitan areas, but inside the house we're a bit cramped, so much so that a few guys actually spot some of our crew and try to make a run for it. One guy though, who stays and talks to me for several minutes tries to defend one of the most frightening chats I have read during the first eight "To Catch A Predator" investigations. His real name is Michael Warrecker, but his screen name is "can_I_rape_you_anally." Brace yourself for what you're about to hear, it's rough stuff, but important we think in order to understand the potential threat this man represents had there really been a 13-year-old girl home alone. What amazes me is that as I am talking to him is how casually he reacts to the things he said online, almost as if everyone on the Internet talks this way.
8:10 p.m.
It seems to me that more and more of the guys who come into our hidden camera houses quickly realize what they've walked into, sometimes because they've actually seen some of our previous investigations. Take for example one of the next men you're going to meet. He's a 36-year old musician whose screen name is "sugardavis." He chats online with a decoy who says she's a 13-year-old girl about smoking pot and rubbing oil all over each other's bodies. He shows up without the pot, but has everything else needed for the planned sex party.
It turns out "sugardavis" says he's in counseling because he's met others online for sex. He chats with our decoy, a young looking actress for a few minutes before I also walk into the room. I'm not sure you'll be able to pick up on this watching on television, but it was clear to me that he recognized me immediately. It was almost as if he's seen a ghost. He says one word: "nooooo" and bolts. He won't get far.
8:21 p.m.
As many times as I have seen it happen, I still don't understand how a grown man with young teenaged kids can justify a sexually explicit online chat with another young teenager and then show up presumably for sex. Most of them seem to know intellectually that it's wrong and against the law, but somehow they must compartmentalize their lives in away that justifies their behavior.
Take for instance 44-year-old Robert Salinas who chats with and then visits a girl who he thinks is 13. In his chat he says "I could get in trouble for making love to a minor." Salinas tells me he has just finished making a service call for the copy machine repair company where he works. Online, he says he has to pick up one of his own kids at karate practice but finds time to pick up sandwiches for our decoy.
Watch as he, like so many other guys, walks in like he's right at home. Salinas admits that what he's doing is wrong and suggests to me that getting caught is a "wake-up call." That's probably true -- but not as much of a wake up call as he's about to get from the Long Beach Police.
8:45 p.m.
Sometimes in our investigation we have so many men show up that we don't have time to put each and every one in our programs. That's what happened early last year during our investigation in Riverside County, Ca.
There, more than 50 men showed up and were arrested. One of the men in Riverside who didn't make it into the show is a man named Michael Siebert. He was one of the guys you sort of feel sorry for because they seem a bit slow, but a clear case of why a guy like him could still be dangerous.
Fast-forward 8 months from our Riverside investigation and here we are in Long Beach. Guess who's chatting about sex online with a decoy posing as a 13-year old?
Unbelievably he tells our decoy he can't come over Friday because he has a court date. Later, we'll learn that it's a court date stemming from his arrest in Riverside.
On Saturday night, however, he's in our living room looking for the girl with whom he thought he was chatting.
I say to him: "you know we've had this talk before." He curses, apologizes and promises he'll never do it again. In a moment, you'll hear about a third criminal case in which Siebert was charged. This one resulted in a year in prison.
8:55 p.m.
Next week you'll met a guy who is no stranger to Perverted Justice decoys -- and as you'll see, he'll stretch the resources of Dateline and the Long Beach Police.
Hope you'll join us again on-air and online next week. And don't hesitate to send us your feedback, below.
Editor's note: Here's some Web-exclusive video -- a video blog of Chris and Lynn Keller, one of the producers behind the series. They talk about the feedback they've received re the show... and how they first reacted when a man stripped naked in one of the reports.
Also, many of the comments below asked about the absence of female predators in these reports. We've addressed this question in a previous blog entry. Check it out.
