California Student Uses Snapchat Gender Swap Filter To Dupe Alleged Predator
A police officer was arrested after a San Francisco college student used Snapchat to make himself look like a young girl and lured the officer into a trap, NBC Bay Area reported Tuesday.
The 20-year-old student, Ethan, utilized the app to make a “16-year-old” female version of himself, which he named “Ester.”
He posted the deceptive photo on Tinder, where 40-year-old Robert Davies, a San Mateo police officer, took the bait.
It’s clear that Ethan no longer looked like himself in the photo, as shown in a tweet posted by a Bay Area News reporter.
He used Snapchat’s “gender switch” filter to pose as a 16-year-old girl online, and take down a police officer allegedly looking to hook up. He tipped off the PD, and the officer was arrested.
Our exclusive interview with the man, and why he did it, at 11 on @nbcbayarea pic.twitter.com/VaGtg14uLL— Ian Cull (@NBCian) June 11, 2019
Ethan recalls Davies messaging the fake profile, “Are you down to have some fun tonight?”
San Jose Police say the pair engaged in dialogue for more than 12 hours, prompting the conversation to be moved to Kik, a dating app.
The Kik messages included “Ester” telling Davies she was only 16-years-old, to which he responded, “that might be [a] problem.”
However, he still insisted that he wanted “pix,” alluding to explicit photographs of the underage girl, officers say.
“Ester” said she was uncomfortable sending sexual images, but Davies insisted “he wouldn’t show anybody.”
Ethan screen-grabbed the dialogue and turned it over to local police.
He also told the Bay Area news outlet that he pressed Davies for bits of information that would help to identify him in a crime.
“I was trying to get someone,” Ethan told NBC Bay Area. “It just happened to be a cop.”
Davies was booked in the Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of contacting a minor to commit a felony, The Hill reported.
The San Mateo Police Chief gave the following statement to the Bay Area news group:
“This alleged conduct, if true, is in no way a reflection of all that we stand for as a Department, and is an affront to the tenets of our department and our profession as a whole.
“As San Mateo police officers, we have sworn an oath to serve and protect our communities. I can assure you that we remain steadfast to this commitment to serving our community with ‘Professionalism, Integrity, and Excellence.’”
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