PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. (CBS12) — A Broward County man has been arrested and faces multiple charges after investigators say he used AI to create and send a nude image of a teenage coworker and then tried to coerce her with money and messages, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
The affidavit says deputies were called after a 17-year-old employee at Boca West Country Club reported that a coworker had obtained her Instagram account several months earlier and began sending increasingly sexual messages. The charging documents allege the coworker sent the victim an image that had been AI-edited from one of her TikTok videos — showing her face on an adult nude body — and threatened to “expose” the images if she did not resume contact.
Thomas Ball of Coral Springs is accused of sending a teen an image that had been AI-edited from one of her TikTok videos — showing her face on an adult nude body — and threatened to “expose” the images if she did not resume contact. (PBSO)
Investigators say the messaging escalated on March 8, 2026, when the suspect allegedly sent the flagged image via Instagram’s vanish mode. The teen told deputies she identified the image as a screenshot from a TikTok video she had posted in 2023 when she was about 13 or 14; she said the AI-generated edit showed breasts and genitalia that were not hers.
The affidavit reports the suspect acknowledged he knew she was a minor, writing, “I know you’re still a minor,” and at other times saying, “I love you,” and that he “thought of her as a daughter.” The suspect also reportedly tried to lure her with money, first offering “$200” and later saying he would give her “$1,000,” and wrote that if he “could get her nails and feet done, she would never hear from him again.”
The documents include additional alleged messages in which the suspect wrote that the police “can get it,” and at other moments denied wrongdoing with lines such as, “I didn’t do what you’re talking about.” The affidavit says he also claimed to have “found a lot of pictures” of the victim online and told her he had a picture he “won’t show.”
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According to investigators, the suspect continued contacting the victim after she blocked him, switching to other phone numbers and messaging platforms including SMS and WhatsApp. Records reviewed by investigators reportedly linked one of the phone numbers used to a TMobile account registered to the suspect. The victim provided screenshots, text threads, Zelle transaction records and the AI image itself to deputies.
The affidavit also notes a separate March incident in which police in Sunrise reportedly responded after a friend said the suspect had sought a firearm; officers there reported he was taken for evaluation under the Baker Act on March 12 after threatening people while intoxicated.
Palm Beach County detectives say their review of the evidence produced probable cause to arrest the man on charges including altered sexual depictions of an identifiable person, transmission of harmful material to a minor, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device. The victim described significant emotional effects from the incident, including anxiety, sleep and appetite disturbances, and fear of encountering the suspect.
Bond for Ball was set at $75,000.
A representative for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the arrest. The case remains under investigation and will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office.