Experts: Child predators use Xbox to find victims

TACOMA -- A Level Three sex offender has been busted by police for allegedly trying to meet a 15-year-old girl for sex. But the 'girl' was actually an undercover Auburn police officer.

Cops say the 22-year-old was trying to meet up with a 14-year-old boy’s girlfriend through an Xbox. The kid’s parents found out, and cops swooped in to set up a sting and arrest  him.

Convicted child rapist Brennon Cloud was arrested in 2008 and 2011 for similar crimes. He was released in 2010 but cops say he didn’t learn his lesson.

Cops say Cloud started talking to the boy using an Xbox live account. It’s a place where online players can compete and chat. But then cops say Cloud began talking to the boy on his cell phone.

Shandor Collins, owner at video game store Gamebreakerz in Auburn, says sharing phone numbers with strangers on Xbox could be a sign of something more sinister.

“Things of that nature, that’s a personal natur,e especially a phone number, that’s an automatic red flag,” said Collins.

Investigators say Cloud may have looked for his next victim on Xbox because finding kids there is easy. Just ask undercover Washington State Patrol trooper ‘Curtis.’

“If you’re looking for a target-rich environment, that’s the place to go,” said Curtis.

Curtis says parents don’t even consider the Xbox as a place where child predators could be lurking.

“On some level you might consider it even more dangerous,” said Curtis. “Most parents don’t even consider a gaming device as some vehicle to the Internet.”

Undercover Auburn police officers, posing as a 15-year-old girl, talked with Cloud for days over text messages. When Cloud allegedly asked to meet the young girl, cops set up a sting in Bellingham and arrested him.

Experts say this case is a reminder that the Xbox is just as dangerous a place for kids as anywhere online

“It’s not at all safer,” said Curtis. “I would look at every device that’s capable of accessing the Internet, and communicating with people that you don’t know is a danger.”

Investigators have been busy with Cloud. Seattle police posing as a different underage girl were talking with him, too.

Cloud is at the King County Jail on $200,000 bail. He’s scheduled to be back in court Friday.