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To Catch a Predator, Part One

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Stone_phillips_medium Good evening.  I'm Stone Phillips, and this is Dateline NBC.
Stone_phillips_medium Once again, the crew from Perverted Justice are pursuing online predators.
Stone_phillips_medium With the results of their latest sting, here's Chris Hansen.
Chris_hansen_medium You've seen our investigations of child predators before, but never quite like this.
Chris_hansen_medium Never before have we caught so many creepy predators.
Chris_hansen_medium Never before have the predators we caught been so famous.
Chris_hansen_medium After our last operation, our friends at Perverted Justice decided we needed a slightly different scenario to avoid potential predators discovering our operation.  
Chris_hansen_medium So here is what they did: They created a fifteen year-old football recruit named "Brian Allen."  Brian is supposed to be a 6'1" 250 pound offensive lineman.  He's actually being played by one of our Perverted Justice decoys.  To make him as tempting as possible to predators, we gave him a scholarship offer from Iowa.  Our decoy made a couple of posts on Rivals message boards to see who would respond.
Chris_hansen_medium Our first predator goes by the screen name "ReamerClub" and responded to the Rivals post almost immediately.
Chris_hansen_medium He first asked our decoy "have u evr played b4?"  Our decoy replied "no but i want 2" and ReamerClub replied "so ur a fb virgin lol" before saying "Id let u play 4 me"
Chris_hansen_medium He asked our decoy "what iz ur favorit position?" When the decoy said "I dunno" ReamerClub said "I imagine u can play a lot of positionz".
Chris_hansen_medium He also talked a lot about trains.
Chris_hansen_medium After two days of back-and-forth, ReamerClub said he'd come over for an in-home visit.  Our crew and NCAA compliance officers set up at our decoy house and waited.

Hope_icon_medium /drives up to house
Brian_allen_icon_medium Hey! Come on inside!
Brian_allen_icon_medium Mom is making meatloaf for later!
Hope_icon_medium That sounds great!  It's been a long trip.
Brian_allen_icon_medium Go ahead and make yourself a drink.  I'm just going to go move some laundry to the dryer.
Hope_icon_medium /pours club soda, sips
Chris_hansen_medium How's that drink?
Hope_icon_medium It's good.  Very good.  Not boilermaker good, but not much is heh heh
Hope_icon_medium Are you Brian's dad?
Chris_hansen_medium Oh, we'll get to who I am later.  Let's talk.  What's your name?
Hope_icon_medium Danny.
Chris_hansen_medium Danny, have a seat there.

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Chris_hansen_medium What are you doing here, Danny?
Hope_icon_medium Recuiting Brian, I guess.
Chris_hansen_medium Recruiting Brian? Is that what we're calling it now?  And how did you meet Brian?
Hope_icon_medium We chatted online.
Chris_hansen_medium What did you chat about?
Hope_icon_medium Football and stuff.
Chris_hansen_medium Did Brian tell you how old he was?
Hope_icon_medium I believe he told me he was...mumbleteen.
Chris_hansen_medium Fifteen.
Hope_icon_medium Fifteen?
Chris_hansen_medium FIFTEEN, DANNY.  You were chatting with a fifteen year old.
Hope_icon_medium I don't remember him saying he was fifteen.
Chris_hansen_medium I have the transcript here.  It says fifteen.
Chris_hansen_medium So what are you doing chatting on the internet with a fifteen year old?
Hope_icon_medium I don't know.  I just have this insatiable need to talk to teenagers about football.
Chris_hansen_medium How old are you, Danny?
Hope_icon_medium I'm 52.
Chris_hansen_medium You're fifty two! Do you think that's appropriate?
Hope_icon_medium It's just part of my job, sir.
Chris_hansen_medium What do you do?
Hope_icon_medium I'm a football coach.
Chris_hansen_medium So you work with young people like Brian, and yet you also engage in behavior like this.
Chris_hansen_medium Where did you drive from?
Hope_icon_medium West Lafayette, Indiana.
Chris_hansen_medium How far was your trip?
Hope_icon_medium About three hours.
Chris_hansen_medium You drove three hours to meet this boy?
Hope_icon_medium Yeah, I did.
Chris_hansen_medium Have you done this before?
Hope_icon_medium Many times.  I do this all summer.
Chris_hansen_medium So what did you plan on doing when you got here?
Hope_icon_medium I don't know, just talk about football.
Chris_hansen_medium Talk about football?  You drove three hours to talk to a fifteen year old about football?
Hope_icon_medium Yeah.  I just wanted to hang out.  Maybe see if Brian wanted to play for me.
Chris_hansen_medium Well, the transcript shows you certainly wanted Brian to "play for you".  You offered him scholarships, a free room, his choice of starting position.  This is raunchy stuff, Danny.
Hope_icon_medium That's pretty par for the course for me.
Chris_hansen_medium Did you really think you'd get a fifteen year old to "play for you" Danny?  Look at yourself.  You're wearing a tank top.  You have that creepy mustache.  You're from a town that doesn't actually exist.  You coach for a Mid-American Conference school...
Hope_icon_medium Actually, Purdue is in the Big Ten.
Chris_hansen_medium Yeah, sure they are.
Chris_hansen_medium Well, Danny, my name is Chris Hansen, and I'm doing a piece for Dateline NBC on online predators like you.  So unless you have something else to say to our cameras, you're free to go.

Hope_icon_medium I guess all I have to say is, Boiler Up!

Chris_hansen_medium I think you should go now.
Chris_hansen_medium [voiceover] Little does Danny know that our NCAA compliance officers are in position outside.

Swat_team_medium

Hope_icon_medium /gets up, walks outside
Swat_team_icon_medium FREEZE
Hope_icon_medium /puts hands up
Swat_team_icon_medium /fires taser, misses, hits coach from small college instead
Chris_hansen_medium When we return, a thirtysomething bachelor shows up looking for a tackle, if you know what I mean.

TO BE CONTINUED...