TULSA -- An online predator asked Tulsa families for photos of their young children on Facebook.
Charlene Mann's adult daughter got a message from someone named "Ashley Morgan" recently. The profile sent Mann's daughter a photo she posted of her 9-year old granddaughter on the first day of school. Morgan asked for pictures of Mann's other granddaughters.
That is when the grandmother stepped in and shut it down.
"I said, 'It's not going to happen. You're not who you say you are. You're a child predator. I will protect and save children from people like you. I will contact the police,'" Mann said she told the person sending her daughter messages.
Mann said the Facebook user immediately blocked her.
The profile photo showed a young pregnant woman and said she went to OSU and lived in Tulsa.
Mann heard from other people she knew that Morgan moved on to asking them for nude photos of their children.
"It's scary, because you don't know who these people are," Mann said. "Just because they are friends of your friends don't mean you know them."
Mann contacted Tulsa Police and the profile caught the detectives' eye. There were photos of underage girls with sexually charged captions and pleas to young females to post photos of themselves in the comments.
"While you may have an innocent intention of posting pictures of your children, someone may have a nefarious reason for wanting to see that," Det. Joshua Showman with TPD Cyber Crimes said.
Det. Showman believes the person is not local and is likely from out of the country based on their broken English in the posts.
"It's a brand new profile," Det. Showman said. "They are sending out friend requests indiscriminately and they are using sexual content as a way to get people to friend them."
He said he did not know what the photos this predator was gathering would be used for. That worries Mann, even though her granddaughter was in her school uniform.
"It scares me," Mann said. "Where is my granddaughter now in this world? She is out there somewhere in this world and it is scary."
Tulsa Police are working with Facebook to identify who the person is behind the profile.
The account has been deactivated.
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