One of the craziest stories I’ve ever reported, a thread.

Early pandemic. A welder in Indiana is on YouTube. He sees all these “Save the Children” inspired videos in which regular guys pose as kids online to catch predators.

He thinks hey, I can do that.
wapo.st/3LOhM65 Soon, Eric Schmutte is on every dating app. He spends all of his free time texting suspected predators, then live streaming his confrontations with them.

In May 2021, one of his targets was a police officer, Josh Clark. Schmutte pretends to be a 14-yr-old girl named Mackenzie.

Have you ever met someone who makes you question the limits of human potential?

For the past few months, I’ve had the honor of spending time with a carpet cleaner named Vaughn Smith. You’re not going to believe me when I tell you what he can do.

wapo.st/3uSgjn7 When Vaughn was a child, his mother noticed that he wasn’t quite connecting with other kids in the right way.

She took him to get tested. A psychologist told her her son was just incredibly smart.

Remember in the summer of 2020, when everybody from wannabe celebrity influencers to your high school friend’s mom was posting about Wayfair being involved in child sex trafficking?

Here’s what really happened.

washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/inter… Not only was this not true, the damage it caused is still unfolding, a year and a half later.

You’re 15. You’re being interrogated by police.

You ask if your mom is coming. They say no.

You ask for a lawyer. They talk you out of it.

You tell them you have a “pimp,” or in other words, you’re a victim of child sex trafficking.

They ignore you.

washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/inter… This happened in my hometown of Akron, Ohio, to a girl named Alexis Martin. She led robbers to the house of her 36-year-old alleged trafficker, and he was killed. She wasn’t in the room when the shots were fired.