Police arrest man for child pornography after tipoff from burglars

http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/06/us/california-robbery-porn-bust/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

A central California man has been arrested for possession of child pornography, thanks to a tip from burglars who robbed the man's property, authorities said.

Last month, a juvenile and a 19-year-old illegally accessed the property of Kraig Stockard, 54, of Delhi, California, according to a statement from Deputy Tom MacKenzie of the Merced County Sheriff's Department. They broke into Stockard's barn and stole approximately 50 CDs they believed were blank.

Stockard filed a police report on the incident on September 12, according to MacKenzie.

But the young people who stole the CDs were in for a surprise. When they began putting the discs into their computer, they discovered that some of them contained pornographic images of children, the statement said.

Despite having obtained the CDs under decidedly shady circumstances, the pair decided to report Stockard to the police.

It goes on to say that the case of the two burglars is under review but neither have been arrested.

Well...

I think those young men should get a fine equivalent to the damages and property. No jail time or anything silly like that. The fine should be paid to an appropriate outlet like chid abuse foundations or something.

I have to wonder how they came to the decision to blow the whistle.

If they weighed things out and hoped that they'd get leniency for their crimes due to a good deed or if they just didn't think about it.

There are some criminals dumb enough to report crimes that end up recursively implicating them after all.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
I have to wonder how they came to the decision to blow the whistle.

If they weighed things out and hoped that they'd get leniency for their crimes due to a good deed or if they just didn't think about it.

There are some criminals dumb enough to report crimes that end up recursively implicating them after all.

Would have been much worse then getting a slap on the wrist for burglary... with the added bonus of getting a paedo caught.

Originally posted by §P0oONY
Imagine if they were arrested for theft... and then caught with child porn. That's not going to go well.

Would have been much worse then getting a slap on the wrist for burglary... with the added bonus of getting a paedo caught.

Originally posted by Omega Vision
I have to wonder how they came to the decision to blow the whistle.

If they weighed things out and hoped that they'd get leniency for their crimes due to a good deed or if they just didn't think about it.

There are some criminals dumb enough to report crimes that end up recursively implicating them after all.

Well, they could be the "good" criminals. Meaning, they have decent morals and they care about kids.

Originally posted by §P0oONY
Imagine if they were arrested for theft... and then caught with child porn. That's not going to go well.

Would have been much worse then getting a slap on the wrist for burglary... with the added bonus of getting a paedo caught.

this

actually, thinking about it, I wonder if they could have reported, yet, declined to comment on how they obtained the material on the grounds it would violate their protection against self incrimination....

Originally posted by inimalist
this

To be honest I doubt there such a cynical calculus was the primary motivation. Dislike of pedophiles is very much ingrained into our culture.

Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
To be honest I doubt there such a cynical calculus was the primary motivation. Dislike of pedophiles is very much ingrained into our culture.

sure, I'm not saying there wasn't some motivation to nab the pedo

I'd be surprised if that didn't come into the calculus though: "we do X if we get caught for stealing, we do X^10 if we get caught for child porn"

IRONY!

-have them serve time for the crime

-reward them for catching a pedophile

-execute the pedophile

Justice is served, life goes on and everyone is happy.

Originally posted by Robtard
-have them serve time for the crime

-reward them for catching a pedophile

-execute the pedophile

Justice is served, life goes on and everyone is happy.

you think a minor should serve time for breaking into a shed and stealing CDs?

Originally posted by Robtard
-have them serve time for the crime

-reward them for catching a pedophile

-execute the pedophile

Justice is served, life goes on and everyone is happy.

cue scotty's scottish accent..

"but there's a flaw in your second statement, sir. they could they use the money for bail and flee the country, captian."

Reminds me of Donnie Darko. Donnie burns the one dude's house down and child pornography is found while the cops are investigating.

I wonder why they wouldn't just leave it as an anonymous tip? Is it cause the evidence of the child pornography can't be used due to the fact it was stolen? It seems to me, they probably just expected praise for it, and should probably receive it.

The pedo will likely get a reduced sentence or have his case thrown out because he'll claim the evidence against him was unlawfully acquired. The honest thieves will probably get 25 to life.

evidence laws only apply to the police. since the police didn't steal it, and had it turned into them, it would be admissible afaik.

if he denied the evidence was his, it might be a harder case to prove, but the accusation alone will be probable cause to search his computers and internet history.

The case would be incredibly difficult to make on the CDs alone even if they were not stolen, as it becomes a he said/she said, and the burglars themselves face the possibility of "possessing child porn" charges in a scenario like that

Yeah that makes sense. I could very well see this evolving into a he/she said predicament.
It just doesn't seem like enough to convict the pedophile, unless they obtain evidence from his other computers/internet history.

Well, you could pretty much solve the whole case without ever having to access that pedos computers, at all.

Just subpoena the ISP and match IPs/MAC addresses to the data trail on the CDs. (You just have to time stamp match the address assignments with the data on the CDs). Almost always, there's data left that will give browsing history information of some sort such as website visited, website the information comes from, etccccccc.

Boom, bust down the door, sodomize him with a night stick, and put him in cuffs (lol).