Law enforcement’s tricks to catch online predators

An elementary school teacher was arrested for trying to have sex with a 2-year-old girl.

A father posted online looking for someone to share the cost of a hotel room with him and his daughter. The father called 911 after deputies in Palm Beach County said Xavier Alexander asked if he would ever be alone with the girl.

Alexander is behind bars on a $1 million bond after going to a hotel to try to have sex with a toddler.

He was listed as a babysitter on a website and has since been removed from that website. He was also fired from his job as a teacher.

Glen Pounder works with undercover detectives to find and prosecute child predators. He teaches them different methods to track those predators down.

One of the biggest skills they teach is to earn the trust of the bad guy. In this case, an undercover deputy posed as the toddler’s father.

In the arrest report, Alexander told that deputy he would pick up the bill for the two-night stay in the motel if he was able to be alone with the girl.

“It’s very difficult for people to grasp that somebody who is an elementary school teacher who we trust with our kids, actually has a dangerous and highly illegal sexual interest in children,” Pounder said.

Alexander didn’t know that when he arrived at the Lantana Motel with $200 in cash and a condom stashed in his shoe, detectives would be there to arrest him.

He denies ever touching a child in a sexual manner but did admit to being aroused while babysitting.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office believes there could be more victims out there.