Bay Minette, Ala. (WALA) – Baldwin County sheriff’s deputies arrested two suspected child predators in two days. Both men allegedly tried to meet what they thought was a 14-year-old for sex. It’s the third arrest of its kind since September.
From the dark web to chat rooms in popular gaming apps, child predators lurk and look for easy victims. They’re not the only ones hiding in the shadows, though. The good guys are too. The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office has a dedicated investigative team hunting them down. Even so, it’s all they can do to keep pace with the criminals.
“Before the internet. Before computer technology and social media, these are the types of cases where predators would be out in parks hunting kids. Well, now they’re able to hunt them online,” said Capt. Daniel Steelman with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. “They’re able to hunt them and try to make contact with them through the internet.”
That’s just what investigators said Antoine Watts and Jeremy Windle did. What they didn’t know was that the 14-year-old girl they thought they were communicating with was actually one of the good guys in an Internet Crimes Against Children office. Deputies said each man reached out to who he thought was a young teen. Both made arrangements to drive to Baldwin County to meet her for sex…