An Upstate New York has been arrested after allegedly sending sexually explicit texts to a minor.<\/p>\n
Vincent Steiner, of Chili, N.Y., is accused of exchanging messages with a 12-year-old girl he met on Roblox, according to a criminal complaint obtained by WHAM<\/a>. Steiner allegedly first contacted her over the gaming platform\u2019s chat around Christmas last year, then exchanged phone numbers and continued to send inappropriate messages via text.<\/p>\n The messages were reported in March when the victim\u2019s father called the FBI National Threat Operations Center, according to the complaint. The parent discovered the messages on the child\u2019s phone, officials said.<\/p>\n An investigation found the girl, who claimed to be 13 years old, used three Roblox accounts to communicate with Steiner. There is no minimum age to have a Roblox account, but accounts for users under age 13 must have parental permission<\/a> to enable direct chat with others.<\/p>\n WHEC<\/a> reports a search and seizure warrant executed in July found child pornography on Steiner\u2019s phone, including of the 12-year-old he had been messaging with and of children as young as 4 years old. According to court documents, Steiner confirmed he had been exchanging explicit messages and photos with a minor over Roblox and over text.<\/p>\n Steiner\u2019s age was not listed, but he reportedly told the victim he was 20.<\/p>\n He was arrested Nov. 6 and charged with production and attempted production of child pornography and sexual exploitation of children, according to the criminal complaint. WHAM reports he was released from custody Monday after forfeiting his home to post $82,118 bond.<\/p>\n Steiner was previously a volunteer firefighter in the Chili Fire Department. He resigned in July.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have no information indicating that any of the allegations occurred while he was on duty or engaged in department activities, and we are not aware of any allegations or inquiries related to his conduct during his time as a volunteer,\u201d Chili Fire Chief Andrew Wilkinson said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cAs a matter of policy, the Chili Fire Department cannot comment on an individual\u2019s actions or circumstances following their resignation. We continue to fully cooperate with our law enforcement partners and stand ready to assist should any information be requested.\u201d<\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Upstate New York has been arrested after allegedly sending sexually explicit texts to a minor. Vincent Steiner,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26899,26900,26901,26902,9,11,10,49,51,50,7319,4309,26903,6087],"class_list":{"0":"post-47450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-brand","9":"tag-cellphone","10":"tag-device","11":"tag-logos","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-online","19":"tag-phone","20":"tag-roblox-corporation","21":"tag-smartphone"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}