ST. LOUIS — Anthony Greene is not a police officer. But he has stopped more than 50 men in what look like arrests.
“Usually when I walk up to someone they’re like a deer in headlights,” said Greene. “They have a camera, a light in their face.”
Greene's day job is trucking. He said in truck stop parking lots across the country he's seen men meeting underage girls they found online for sex. And from where he sits, no place is worse than his hometown of St. Louis.
About six months ago he decided to confront the problem, live on Facebook.
“Do you know how many thousands of people are watching? Everybody's going to know about this,” Greene is heard telling a man he’s confronting in a St. Louis County gas station lot, broadcasting via social media.
Greene started the Facebook page "Truckers Against Predators” and recruited volunteers to pose as underage girls on just about any app with a messaging function.
Green said most men cut off the conversation when the decoy reveals her fake age, but for those who pursue the decoys set up a meeting. And when the men arrive Greene is waiting with thousands watching through the feed from his cell phone.
Greene said, so far, TAP has not exposed anyone other than those he said were trying to meet a young girl.
As for criticism that his team is carrying out vigilante justice without due process, he said, “If we were vigilantes we would never turn the camera on ... we’d meet them at a dark location and hurt them.”
Greene said he turns all of his evidence over to police. At least one person has been arrested and Greene is confident Truckers Against Predators will soon get its first conviction.
And while he said some smaller police departments welcome his work, St. Louis County Police told 5 On Your Side they do not support what he's doing.
They said it's not safe for bystanders in the parking lots where his confrontations go down.
And not safe for him.
But Greene insists the risk is worth it.
“I know firsthand what it’s like growing up being a victim,” said Greene.
He said he doesn't like to talk about it but part of the reason he's passionate about this work is that he was victim of sex abuse when he was a child.
It’s “very personal,” Greene said.
County police said even if Greene is catching guilty men in the act, he's not collecting evidence in a way that they can use it. And they doubt any of his subjects will ever see jail time.
Greene said for the men he exposes “sometimes internet justice is better than police justice.”
TAP is not just operating in the St. Louis area. Greene said he has teams working across the country. And that may be another problem with getting these cases to stick in court. Police said with his team working across state lines, they may be breaking the law when they record their conversations with their targets.
Still, thousands of people watch the videos and follow his Facebook page. And Greene said he’s even talking to a cable network about a possible reality show.