Creep Catching Unit: Local "Ghost" confronts and exposes suspected pedophiles

Hannah Hanford

Village News Intern

Turning an interest into something good for the community, founder "Ghost" of CC Unit organization or "Creep Catching Unit" catches suspected predators, mostly in Southern California. The CC Unit started in San Diego County and has caught suspected predators throughout California, including San Francisco and all the way to Arizona.

"Ghost" who, for obvious reasons remains anonymous, has stated on his website, "CC Unit is a movement out of California that strives to help protect children from online predators both by catching these predators, and raising community awareness around the issue in hopes of toughening laws and legislation."

Always wanting to be a police officer, founder "Ghost" was a big fan of the television series "Catch a predator" with Chris Hansen, he said. He added, "Wow that's crazy that's he's doing this stuff and I always wondered how many were in our area in San Diego so I started doing it back in 2018."

Now it's 2022 and he has aided in the arrests of 314 predators so far with the help of decoys, security, a camera crew, a video editor and public relations people. Typically the CC Unit communicates with law enforcement before the catch. This way, "Ghost" and his unit are able to manage the catch more successfully. Afterward, all the evidence, photos, texts, etc. are given to law enforcement as evidence.

"Ghost" said that the gist of the process is that, "Grown men hit up our decoy accounts and they think they are talking with a minor and then they come out to meet with that minor for lewd purposes and, instead of meeting with the minor, they meet the CC Unit and they get caught and arrested by the police department." Ghost also said, "The predators mostly want nudes and sexual acts with the minors."

"Ghost" says he has multiple decoys and they have posed as children as young as 8 and 9 years old to 12-years-old. He said in another interview online that he was shocked the first time he put a decoy online, there were hundreds of messages for the minor decoy. He said that within 30 minutes the inbox was flooded. He was able to catch the guy within an hour at a grocery store. He said one person came out for what he thought was a four-year-old.

People who have been arrested include all walks of life, including school teachers, a director of education, Disney staff, a cable installer, aerospace engineer, law enforcement, a wedding organizer, retired veterans, construction workers, musicians and fast food workers. There is no one "type" of person that is caught, except they are almost always male.

The CC Unit doesn't just focus on San Diego County, but also the counties of Riverside, Orange, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino, which allows "Ghost" and his unit to help those communities as well as San Diego.

For people who are interested in joining the unit, "Ghost" says that "anyone can ask to join but not everyone gets in."

"Ghost" describes himself as a typical 22-year-old college student. Remaining anonymous, "Ghost" and his unit don't expose information and remain confidential. "Ghost" does say it's dangerous, but they always come prepared when meeting the predator. "Ghost" says, "Are we afraid? No. Adrenaline? Yes."

When meeting a suspected predator, "Ghost" and his crew have been attacked twice. "Ghost" said out of the 310 predators, there have been "Near 20+ convictions, but the court system is very slow. We will have much more in the future."

"Ghost" was asked to comment on the police/Sheriff departments that are cooperative and friendly toward their work and if there are some who are uncooperative. Ghost said, "I back the blue. I have huge respect and support towards police/sheriff departments that care about the safety of children and their community. I appreciate them working with us."

As far as the District Attorneys in each county that follow through and work towards a conviction of the suspects, "Ghost" said Riverside, Orange County, San Bernardino and LA counties are all cooperative, but the San Diego district attorney's office is not. According to "Ghost", they are concerned that the CC Unit is a vigilante group. "Ghost" refutes that claim. He says they work within the legal system to bring pedophiles to justice and help protect minors who may be targeted by these adults and that's why all the surrounding district attorneys work with them, except San Diego.

"Ghost" hopes in the future that his process of catching predators continues and expands worldwide. "Ghost" said, " Follow us on our social media and share our videos for awareness." He can be found on Instagram: @cc.unit, Facebook: @CC UNIT and YouTube: @CC UNIT.