Police stop Michigan MySpace meeting
There was a happy ending Wednesday to a frightening story that unfolded overnight. At the center were a 13-year-old girl and the popular website MySpace.com.
According to authorities, the 13-year-old girl from Harrison Township was online communicating with 25-year-old Steven Builta, of Indiana, over MySpace.
Sheriff Mark Hackel, of Macomb County, told 7 Action News, “Her actual website itself, her actual MySpace account, was pretty provocative. She actually identified herself as being an 18-year-old, when in reality she�s only 13. I don�t know if the parents knew in totality what was going on, what she had online, but for the most part they ended that, but she still had communications with this individual, who was 25 years of age, out of Indiana.”
The 13-year-old�s parents knew about MySpace, and intervened by taking her computer away. But the girl kept in contact with the 25-year-old man by cell phone, which is how she set up the rendezvous.
The 13-year-old met with Builta at a fast food restaurant Tuesday night. She got into the 25-year-old�s car, and attempted to go back to Indiana with him.
Builta was stopped in Kalamazoo and taken into custody, where he is being held until the Macomb Co. Sheriffs pick him up.
The charges that 25-year-old Builta could face have yet to be determined.
So the parents take away the computer but leave the cell phone? Brilliant.
I’m not going to post Bulita’s MySpace because I’m not so sure he’s an actual criminal since the girl misrepresented herself as being 18.
Now, not all kids do this on MySpace but your kid might.
UPDATE 3:50 PM: Apparently there’s more to this story…
While traveling, the 13-year-old�s parents called the suspect on his cell phone, to insist that he return their daughter.
“They were alerted by a girlfriend that, apparently, she [the 13-year-old] had tried to put herself out there as being 18 years of age, and the parents were aware of this, and tried to make sure they told these kids while they were driving to Indiana, �No, she�s not 18, she�s a 13-year-old, and we want our daughter back home,�” Sheriff Hackel explained.
25-year-old Steven Builta has a criminal record, which may be added to, as investigators try to find out exactly what happened between the suspect and the 13-year-old girl during their short ride.
Police are also investigating this possibility that the suspect�s move across state lines in order to meet this teenager is a federal violation.
So it sounds like that he didn’t care or already knew that she was 13. So now I would post his MySpace but I wasn’t able to find it. :-(
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