LAKE WORTH, Fla. (CBS12) — A Lake Worth man’s alleged plan to meet a 13-year-old for sex backfired inside a Dollar General when web vigilantes trapped him for Delray Beach police.
Officers with the Delray Beach Police Department say they responded to the store at 1230 West Lincoln Blvd. in the Delray Crossing Shopping Center.
Upon their arrival, authorities were approached by Dustin Lamros, the founder of an online social media group called “561 Predator Catcher,” which tracks down individuals attempting to solicit minors. Lampros alerted officers that an individual inside the business was waiting to meet a child.
Inside the store, responding officers located Christian Mabrey speaking with Lampros. After reading him his rights, he confessed to meeting the individual on the dating app “Hily” two to three weeks prior. He stated that their conversation eventually transitioned to WhatsApp, where the user stated they were 13 or 14 years old.
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The investigation revealed that Mabrey was not communicating with a child, but with an associate of Lampros who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. The man provided investigators with the text message history, which showed Mabrey instructing him to transition to WhatsApp.
According to police documents, Mabrey had sent an explicit photograph of himself to the account earlier that day, confirmed he had his phone on his person, and planned to have a sexual encounter inside his black GMC SUV, which was parked in the shopping center lot.
Mabrey now faces felony charges of traveling to meet a minor for an unlawful sex act and the use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony. Jail records show he was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail system just after 8:00 p.m. on Saturday and is currently being held on a $15,000 bond.
