KAMLOOPS — The man caught in the middle of a Kamloops Creep Catchers’ video says he was the innocent victim of a set-up.
Don Andrews is seen in a video at Riverside Park, approached by volunteers from Creep Catchers. He says he was meeting up with a friend.
“I was set up,” he says. “I got a call to meet someone down at Riverside Park, a buddy of mine from Calgary. I got down there and there were five guys from Creep Catchers, I suppose, and they cornered me.”
It’s Creep Catchers’ first video publicized online in Kamloops. The video also shows a chat log that includes 41 messages.
“I myself posed as a 14 year old boy named Caleb, turning 15 in December. He was wanting to go and meet with him to hook up,” says Joanzee, the pseudonym used by the President of Kamloops Creep Catchers.
At the same time, another team member posing as a 15 year old boy was chatting with the same man.
“It can get pretty darn graphic really quick,” he says. “As soon as we set up that profile, I got message after message from multiple people. His kind of stood out when I opened it and there was a picture of genitals. That instantly raised a red flag and that instantly made me want to see where this guy would go.”
Andrews contacted CFJC Today and says he’s innocent, claiming he thought he was meeting up with a friend.
Andrews says it’s a matter of mistaken identity, someone using his picture on their profile, even though it was Andrews who showed up at the park.
“I think somebody set me up and Creep Catchers caught this person that set me up and thought it was me,” says Andrews. “It was a set-up. I don’t think it was Creep Catchers’ fault for doing what they did. But I got caught in the middle of somewhere that someone was using my profile.”
Since the story has come out online, Andrews says he’s lost everything: his job, his children, friends, and he’s been forced to move out of town.
“I’m not in Kamloops anymore. I lost both my jobs, I’ve got a reputation that I’m a pedophile and a pervert. It’s all over Facebook. I need it to stop.”
He’s been threatened online as well.
“I better watch my back, stay away from my kids, I don’t want you near my kids,” says Andrews, who would not reveal where he’s living. “I’m innocent, innocent until proven guilty. I would not hurt a child, so I don’t know how this is coming up.”
Meantime, Creep Catchers says the priority is to keep children in Kamloops safe.
“There are a lot of people who seem to think we are a bunch of hooligans, and we’re not. We just want to raise awareness that there are people out there who do take advantage of small children or young teens.”
