An Arvada cell phone salesman has been arrested on charges of Internet luring of a child.
Timothy Robert Shea, 32, was arrested Friday following a weeklong investigation by the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office.
The investigation began on Nov. 15 when a mother went to a cell phone store with her 13-year-old daughter to buy a cell phone.
Shea was the salesman who waited on them, according to his arrest affidavit. After Shea sold a cell phone to the mother, her daughter told Shea about a problem with her own cell phone.
Shea offered to send her a "test" text message in order to resolve the problem, the affidavit said.
The teen provided him with her cell phone number and he sent the test message. The mother and daughter left the store thinking nothing more about it.
Three days later, the 13-year-old allegedly
received text messages from Shea that caused her concern and she immediately told her mother. The girl's mother had just recently attended District Attorney Investigator Mike Harris’ Internet Safety presentation at a parents group at her child's school, so she called Harris.
Harris began an investigation into Shea's activities, which included at least one conversation between Shea and an undercover investigator.
According to the arrest affidavit,
text messages and cell phone conversations with the undercover investigator led to Shea suggesting a meeting with the person he believed to be the underage teen. The "meeting" was for sexual purposes, the DA said.
[...]
"We strongly recommend that when parents buy cell phones for their children that the transaction reflects that the phone is for the parent," said Storey. "Here is just one more place where a child's personal information can be compromised and potentially used for illegal activity."
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