What would you do in this situation *unsettling content*

[Psyre]

Here are some updates a clarifications. I'm going to go in today and talk things over with my co-worker. My dilemma is that I opted to not see the pictures. He was pretty unsettled and I could tell so I went to check on him, and he explained the situation to me, but I opted to stay clear from the computer, so I did not see anything. I feel like me reporting it to the police would be no different than any of you reporting it, at this point, HE really needs to be on board for anything to happen. I did however do some snooping, found the guys facebook where there was a picture with his daughter, although I have no exact proof she definitely looked 14-15. There were also a bunch of pictures of him holding assault rifles, not to mention he looks like sergeant fucking savage. Arms are the size of my thighs.

My dilemma is that I have known similar situations that have occurred, and fathers have paid tens of thousands in court fees and had been innocent, only for it to have been another family member etc. I'm just going to have to talk it over with said co-worker and find the best way to support his decision.

[Harry_Manback]

Yeah, your co-worker definitely needs to be on board since he is the "witness." Then get the police involved. If it isn't her dad, the girl needs help.

You're doing the right thing.

[bigchiefbc]

Yeah, your co-worker definitely needs to be on board since he is the "witness." Then get the police involved. If it isn't her dad, the girl needs help.

You're doing the right thing.

Except that if it isn't her dad's doing, you just bankrupted him and ruined his life for nothing.

[AxAxSxS]

I've read all the replys and comments and I dont think anyone has really come up with the best course of action.
Here's the facts as I see them
1 Staples managedment has no idea what to do and is not equipped to handle something like this.
2 Staples management are not law enforcement and should not attempt to handle this on there own.
3 Father is a big dude who appears to be capable of inflicting great harm on people.
4 at this time there is no evidence showing the father is to blame.
5 inapropriate and very likely illegal pictures of a minor are on the computer.

Based off of what we know which is most likely not the whole story. I would recomend that you report to law enforcement that Staples employees found what appears to be child pornography on a customers computer. Have the make and model as well as the serial # information ready to provide law enforcement.
Do not accuse the father of abuse, You don't really know that. The police will look at the evidence and make that determination.
Do not trust Staples management to handle this situation, they have allready failed and it is not the corporations responsibility to police thier customers.
Get familiar with whistleblower protection laws. This may or may not protect you as you are not reporting wrongdoing by your employer.
Please do take action. Bear in mind you will not be dealing with some rookie patrol officer who deals with drunks and domestic violence all day long, but with a detective, they tend to be a bit less gung ho about randomely arresting everyone in sight.

[behndy]

well said. that seems a good way to proceed?

[morange]

That sounds like a good way to go to me, too.

[chutneyfarmer]

If you honestly believe there is something sinister occuring, report it, either formally or go anon. There are so many possibilities as to what may be going on here, and precious few of them would be considered appropriate or innocent. People can have their "fuck the police" motives all they want (god knows I have my own!), but the truth is, most people behind bars deserve to be there. Making petty excuses for reasons not to report it makes you as big a part of the problem if something bad is happening to this girl. The whole thing may not be pretty but that's no reason to bury your head and become the shallow, morally bankrupt fuck some others here would opt to be. You and your work collegue know what is contained in those images, if you feel it's an issue worth escalating to the police, DO IT.


Edited to account for previously unread post and an unfair quotation.

[bigchiefbc]

I've read all the replys and comments and I dont think anyone has really come up with the best course of action.
Here's the facts as I see them
1 Staples managedment has no idea what to do and is not equipped to handle something like this.
2 Staples management are not law enforcement and should not attempt to handle this on there own.
3 Father is a big dude who appears to be capable of inflicting great harm on people.
4 at this time there is no evidence showing the father is to blame.
5 inapropriate and very likely illegal pictures of a minor are on the computer.

Based off of what we know which is most likely not the whole story. I would recomend that you report to law enforcement that Staples employees found what appears to be child pornography on a customers computer. Have the make and model as well as the serial # information ready to provide law enforcement.
Do not accuse the father of abuse, You don't really know that. The police will look at the evidence and make that determination.
Do not trust Staples management to handle this situation, they have allready failed and it is not the corporations responsibility to police thier customers.
Get familiar with whistleblower protection laws. This may or may not protect you as you are not reporting wrongdoing by your employer.
Please do take action. Bear in mind you will not be dealing with some rookie patrol officer who deals with drunks and domestic violence all day long, but with a detective, they tend to be a bit less gung ho about randomely arresting everyone in sight.

I disagree. You are ascribing to the police, prosecutor and judicial system a professionalism and dedication to truth and justice that is not borne out by what actually happens in 99% of these cases.

The father will be arrested, immediately, because he was "in possession" of a computer that had child porn on it. He'll be thrown in the clink and will probably be denied bail because they'll say he's a danger to his daughter. His entire community will hear he's been diddling his daughter and taking pictures of her, no one will care whether there is any real proof of that, and he'll be a pariah for the rest of his life. The DA will threaten to charge him with a billion felony charges that carry an 80 year sentence, in order to force him to plea bargain to something he might have or might not have done. He'll take a plea because that's what his lawyer will (correctly) advise him to do. (because if you go to trial, the jury won't care about the evidence, they'll just see a slimeball that obviously abused his daughter, because that's what the DA said he did and OMG look at these awful pictures, what a monster!) He'll do a year or two in prison and then have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

That is how child porn and child abuse allegations are handled in this country.

[bigchiefbc]

There are so many possibilities as to what may be going on here, and precious few of them would be considered appropriate or innocent. People can have their "fuck the police" motives all they want (god knows I have my own!), but the truth is, most people behind bars deserve to be there. Making petty excuses for reasons not to report it makes you as big a part of the problem if something bad is happening to this girl.

The problem is, we don't know if something bad is happening to this girl. He could be a piece of ship child rapist who has been taking advantage of his daughter her whole life. Or, she could be totally fucked in the head, took a bunch of really fucked up pictures of herself, and put it in a folder called daddy because she's fucked in the head and has a lot of awful daddy fantasies. We don't know.

My experience is colored by the fact that I have legal training myself, and also my wife worked for a public defender's office for about 5 years. I've seen decent and innocent people be railroaded into a ruined and crashing down life, and I've also seen complete fucking awful scumbags walk out of court a free man because the police or the prosecution fucked up the investigation and did things they weren't supposed to. Our system is poisoned, and it's rotting from the inside.

The only reason I mention this is because most of you seem to be saying, "call the cops, if the dad's innocent, then he'll be fine". I just want everyone to understand that no, he won't. Period. I've seen almost identical cases happen before, and he never ends up "fine".

[chutneyfarmer]

There are so many possibilities as to what may be going on here, and precious few of them would be considered appropriate or innocent. People can have their "fuck the police" motives all they want (god knows I have my own!), but the truth is, most people behind bars deserve to be there. Making petty excuses for reasons not to report it makes you as big a part of the problem if something bad is happening to this girl.

The problem is, we don't know if something bad is happening to this girl. He could be a piece of ship child rapist who has been taking advantage of his daughter her whole life. Or, she could be totally fucked in the head, took a bunch of really fucked up pictures of herself, and put it in a folder called daddy because she's fucked in the head and has a lot of awful daddy fantasies. We don't know.

My experience is colored by the fact that I have legal training myself, and also my wife worked for a public defender's office for about 5 years. I've seen decent and innocent people be railroaded into a ruined and crashing down life, and I've also seen complete fucking awful scumbags walk out of court a free man because the police or the prosecution fucked up the investigation and did things they weren't supposed to. Our system is poisoned, and it's rotting from the inside.

While I would probably consider myself too naive in relation to matters of the law, I do think you're being a little too cynical. I'm sure you have your reasons for that, as you alluded to in your previous post, but where does it leave us if our approach to everything like this is a shrug of the shoulders and completely ignoring it?

I agree, there may be nothing sinister about the images at all and the father may not be involved at all. That was one of the few non-sinister possibilities I alluded to. Stemming from that though, maybe this is something the father SHOULD be aware of? Maybe everything in the images were done by the girl herself, but if they're as disturbing as we are lead to believe, maybe there's an underlying mental issue at play? If it was your daughter doing things like this to herself at a young age, I'm sure you'd prefer to know.

[culturejam]

Tough call.

If the girl really was 15 at the time the photos were taken, then the guy who brought it in was "in possession of child pornography". And also, whoever copied it could be on the hook for disseminating kiddie porn. Of course, you were just doing what you were supposed to in the pursuit of customer service, but if you get an over-zealous prosecutor looking to make a name for himself....

[TweedBassman]

looks like there's 3 possible scenarios:

1. dude is a pedo and should be dealt with.

2. girl is a whack-o who needs help badly.

3. girl is trying to set up her dad by putting messed up pics in a folder labeled Daddy, then 'breaking' the computer hoping someone would 'catch' him.

either way the girl needs help, either to protect her from someone or from herself. if you want to try and help with a hands off approach, send an anonymous letter to her school guidance counselor. be as vague as possible while also mentioning the severity of the pics so it is taken seriously. don't mention the dad, computers or anything, just that you suspect she is in big trouble.

[bigchiefbc]

There are so many possibilities as to what may be going on here, and precious few of them would be considered appropriate or innocent. People can have their "fuck the police" motives all they want (god knows I have my own!), but the truth is, most people behind bars deserve to be there. Making petty excuses for reasons not to report it makes you as big a part of the problem if something bad is happening to this girl.

The problem is, we don't know if something bad is happening to this girl. He could be a piece of ship child rapist who has been taking advantage of his daughter her whole life. Or, she could be totally fucked in the head, took a bunch of really fucked up pictures of herself, and put it in a folder called daddy because she's fucked in the head and has a lot of awful daddy fantasies. We don't know.

My experience is colored by the fact that I have legal training myself, and also my wife worked for a public defender's office for about 5 years. I've seen decent and innocent people be railroaded into a ruined and crashing down life, and I've also seen complete fucking awful scumbags walk out of court a free man because the police or the prosecution fucked up the investigation and did things they weren't supposed to. Our system is poisoned, and it's rotting from the inside.

While I would probably consider myself too naive in relation to matters of the law, I do think you're being a little too cynical. I'm sure you have your reasons for that, as you alluded to in your previous post, but where does it leave us if our approach to everything like this is a shrug of the shoulders and completely ignoring it?

I agree, there may be nothing sinister about the images at all and the father may not be involved at all. That was one of the few non-sinister possibilities I alluded to. Stemming from that though, maybe this is something the father SHOULD be aware of? Maybe everything in the images were done by the girl herself, but if they're as disturbing as we are lead to believe, maybe there's an underlying mental issue at play? If it was your daughter doing things like this to herself at a young age, I'm sure you'd prefer to know.

Of course I would prefer to know. But I would rather find out about it via some way other than being hauled off in cuffs by the police.

[snipelfritz]

I've seen decent and innocent people be railroaded into a ruined and crashing down life

You seem mostly concerned with this.

and I've also seen complete fucking awful scumbags walk out of court a free man because the police or the prosecution fucked up the investigation and did things they weren't supposed to.

and I seem mostly concerned with this.

Which is good. Either side needs to be put into consideration. If this were something other than a child sexual abuse case, I'd think it would be a lot simpler as you said.

But TS, like I said, and noted in the Staples privacy policy, if there's no Non-disclosure agreement binding you and that apparent loophole in the privacy policy exists, I would put in an anonymous tip to corporate HR, and to the local authorities.

[chutneyfarmer]

There are so many possibilities as to what may be going on here, and precious few of them would be considered appropriate or innocent. People can have their "fuck the police" motives all they want (god knows I have my own!), but the truth is, most people behind bars deserve to be there. Making petty excuses for reasons not to report it makes you as big a part of the problem if something bad is happening to this girl.

The problem is, we don't know if something bad is happening to this girl. He could be a piece of ship child rapist who has been taking advantage of his daughter her whole life. Or, she could be totally fucked in the head, took a bunch of really fucked up pictures of herself, and put it in a folder called daddy because she's fucked in the head and has a lot of awful daddy fantasies. We don't know.

My experience is colored by the fact that I have legal training myself, and also my wife worked for a public defender's office for about 5 years. I've seen decent and innocent people be railroaded into a ruined and crashing down life, and I've also seen complete fucking awful scumbags walk out of court a free man because the police or the prosecution fucked up the investigation and did things they weren't supposed to. Our system is poisoned, and it's rotting from the inside.

While I would probably consider myself too naive in relation to matters of the law, I do think you're being a little too cynical. I'm sure you have your reasons for that, as you alluded to in your previous post, but where does it leave us if our approach to everything like this is a shrug of the shoulders and completely ignoring it?

I agree, there may be nothing sinister about the images at all and the father may not be involved at all. That was one of the few non-sinister possibilities I alluded to. Stemming from that though, maybe this is something the father SHOULD be aware of? Maybe everything in the images were done by the girl herself, but if they're as disturbing as we are lead to believe, maybe there's an underlying mental issue at play? If it was your daughter doing things like this to herself at a young age, I'm sure you'd prefer to know.

Of course I would prefer to know. But I would rather find out about it via some way other than being hauled off in cuffs by the police.

A perfectly valid point, but what other options are there? Imho the last option available in this case is to do nothing. Approaching the father personally may not be the safest option for anyone involved. The management of the company obviously refuse to get involved. While there is an extreme severity in contacting the police, given the circumstances I don't really see a better or safer option.