Group from Texas takes down an accused Fort Myers child pornographer

Mark Schroeder, a 56-year-old man from Fort Myers, sits in jail.

Schroeder was arrested by Fort Myers police, but the detective in charge did not work on this case alone. A vigilante named Alex Rosen, who makes it his mission to uncover predators confronted him first, then called the cops.

The detective on this case does not like the idea of private citizens doing police work, but that is exactly what happened here.

• RELATED: Do vigilantes help or hinder police?

Rosen doesn’t live in Fort Myers. He’s based in Texas.

On May 16, Rosen took a trip to Fort Myers to take a guy down.

Schroeder sits in the Lee County jail, facing 10 counts of possession of child pornography.

For Rosen, catching predators is his passion.

“I was always interested in just catching the bad guys,” Rosen said.

It’s the way he makes his living.

Rosen, when he was just 19 years old, started Predator Poachers. He originally wanted to be a police officer but wasn’t old enough and didn’t want to wait.

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that this was a huge problem and that it’s so easy to find these people,” Rosen said.

In the last five years, Rosen said he has taken credit for helping law enforcement arrest predators in 45 states.

The Schroeder case started when a similar group in England tipped him off. The group sent Rosen text exchanges it had with Schroeder, posing as a teenage girl. The England group asked Rosen to take over since he lives in the United States.

Rosen said Schroeder eventually sent nude pictures of himself to what he believed to be that 13-year-old girl.

The texts and nude pictures are not against the law in Florida because the naked photos actually went to an adult. Had they gone to a real teenager, that would be a crime.

When Rosen came to Fort Myers on May 15, he believed Schroeder committed a different crime: possession of child pornography.

“With Mark, we saw that he had an encrypted app that a lot of pedophiles use to trade child pornography. So I was very sure there was something there with that. And sure enough, there was,” Rosen said.

The confrontation is posted on Rosen’s Facebook.

“I think this makes more of a difference than being a cop writing traffic tickets would,” Rosen said.

Anthony Townsend is a real cop. He is a detective with the Fort Myers police department. He took Schroeder into custody and then released him.

But thanks to the text messages and pictures, Rosen’s confrontation and his own interview with Schroeder, he got a warrant for Schroeder’s phone. Detective Townsend discovered 22 explicit pictures and videos.

But still, the detective is not exactly a fan of vigilante groups doing police work.

“It has to be done the right way with oversight or our investigation, not somebody that has no law enforcement experience or current certification as law enforcement,” Townsend said.

Without the Predator Poachers, it’s unlikely Fort Myers police would have even known about Schroeder.

On Thursday, WINK News will examine whether vigilantes help or hinder police.

Schroeder said he’s not guilty.