{"id":2493,"date":"2025-10-15T20:58:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2493\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T20:58:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T20:58:20","slug":"vigilantes-lure-alleged-child-predator-in-bensalem-pa-nbc10-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/2493\/","title":{"rendered":"Vigilantes lure alleged child predator in Bensalem, Pa. \u2013 NBC10 Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police issued a warning for vigilante groups after civilians lured a suspected child predator to a Bucks County apartment complex, leading to his arrest.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, July 17, 2025, around 9:10 p.m., police in Bensalem Township, Pennsylvania, received a call from a member of the internet vigilante group \u201cPredator Poachers.\u201d Police learned a member of the group had been posing as a 13-year-old girl and communicating with Eric Rooney, a 42-year-old man from Philadelphia, for the last eight months on Instagram, investigators said.<\/p>\n

Investigators said Rooney made sexually explicit messages while believing he was speaking to an underage girl and planned to have sex with her.<\/p>\n

Rooney traveled to an apartment complex on the 2500 block of Knights Road in Bensalem Township on Thursday at 9 p.m., investigators said. When he arrived, he was confronted by members of \u201cPredator Poachers\u201d who then called police.<\/p>\n

Rooney was taken into custody and interviewed by Bensalem Police. Rooney allegedly admitted to traveling to the apartment with the intention of having sex with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. He also admitted to using his cellphone to obtain and view child sexual abuse material, according to investigators.<\/p>\n

Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at\u00a0800-656-4673<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rooney was charged with attempted involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a minor, attempted statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor, attempted corruption of minors, attempted indecent assault of a minor and criminal use of a communication facility. He was arraigned with bail set at 10% of $500,000 and remanded to the Bucks County Correctional Facility. Online court records don\u2019t list legal representation who could speak on his behalf. <\/p>\n

Despite the arrest, Bensalem Township Police are still warning vigilante groups to always call law enforcement before making contact with a suspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not police officers trained to take people down,\u201d Bensalem Public Safety Director William McVey told NBC10. \u201cThat\u2019s the most dangerous time for a police officer is the point of arrest.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Rooney is in custody, McVey said there could be more victims out there. Anyone with information on Rooney should call Bensalem Detectives at 215-633-3719.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Eric<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tBensalem Police<\/p>\n

\t\t\tBensalem Police<\/p>\n

Eric Rooney<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police issued a warning for vigilante groups after civilians lured a suspected child predator to a Bucks County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194,28],"class_list":["post-2493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township","tag-pennsylvania"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}