17-year-old California girl kidnapped as amateur sex sting to catch alleged pedophile goes horribly wrong
VISTA, CALIFORNIA: A group of teenagers in California were reportedly trying to catch a man they believed was preying on young girls when one of them ended up getting kidnapped by him, according to police.
The teens, while talking to police officers, said that they had used a social media application to contact the suspect they believed was hunting for underage girls for sex.
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department said that the youngsters even arranged a meeting with him at a shopping center on Sunday in an attempt to alert law enforcement about him.
The man, identified as 32-year-old Robert Dreyfus, agreed to meet in a parking lot on East Vista Way in Vista, California, nearly 40 miles north of San Diego.
When the teens met Dreyfus, he asked one member of the group, a 17-year-old girl, to get into his car to talk.
The sheriff department's statement said that when the girl got in the vehicle, he drove away without her consent and continued driving for several miles.
The girl then texted the group for help and that is when they alerted the authorities.
Reports state that deputies contacted Dreyfus on his cell phone and asked him to pull over his car. When he complied, the officers arrested him. The girl reportedly fled the vehicle and was rescued unharmed from the location.
Dreyfus was booked into the Vista Detention Facility on suspicion of kidnapping, sending harmful matter to a minor and communication with a minor for specific offenses, the department's statement added.
The San Diego County District Attorney's office said that Dreyfus was eventually released on $175,000 bail and is expected to appear in court on October 15, according to CNN.
It is not yet clear whether he has legal representation.
After the incident, the sheriff's department released a statement, urging people to not set up sting operations in an attempt to catch people committing crimes. "These types of situations can be extremely dangerous and should be handled by your local law enforcement agency," the department said.