A 20-year-old San Francisco Bay Area college student named Ethan used Snapchat’s ‘gender switch’ filter to pose as a woman on Tinder and caught a San Mateo police officer allegedly wanting to hook up.
The student went by the name of a 16-year-old female named “Esther” and said he had a female friend who was molested as a child. Seemingly moved by her story, he wanted to catch possible pedophiles.
“Esther” got a message from one man saying, “Are you down to have some fun tonight?” Ethan claimed.
Ethan turned in the explicit messages the two had exchanged over a 12-hour period to Crime Stoppers.
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The man, later to be identified by investigators as Robert Davies, was reveled to be a San Mateo police officer who had no issues with Esther’s age. He had also been recently recognized for his leadership with the San Mateo Police Department.
“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,” San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer said in a statement.
Davis is currently on paid administrative leave.
Ethan said he had only wanted to catch someone.
“He just happened to be a cop,” he said.
Images and feature images courtesy of / NBC Bay Area
