A Worcester, Massachusetts, man is in custody in Kingston after he allegedly tried to entice a child under 16 into having sex. He was caught after a detailed description of him was given by a 13-year-old in a 911 call.
"His description is really what made the job easy for us to be able to respond fast and locate him as fast as we did," said John Sjostedt, the Kingston police dispatcher who received the call shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday.
Sign up for our Breaking newsletter to get the most urgent news stories in your inbox.
Sjostedt was informed by a 13-year-old that an older man was targeting children and making sexual advances on them at the Kingston Collection Shopping Mall.
Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters.
The dispatcher immediately contacted security at the shopping mall and alerted them to 52-year-old Martin Joe Rosa, who had been making advances toward a 15-year-old girl, one in a group of four teens visiting the mall.
"[He] made statements along the lines of, 'What do I have to do to get in your pants tonight?' Things like that," Kingston Police Sgt. Michael Skowyra said. According to Skowyra, the group of teenagers had also heard Rosa offering drugs and alcohol.
"When you're talking to older men who you don't know, that's where the question comes into play as to what their motivations are. These kids did the right thing," Skowyra continued.
Justyna Roellke, a shopper at the mall and mother of two, applauded the teens who contacted the police, along with their parents.
"Your kids need to know when something is unsafe, and they need to know how to react to it."
Sjostedt, the dispatcher, was just thankful that a potential tragedy was avoided, much to the credit of the teenagers who knew who to call.
"When everything works together like that... It's not all the time that it happens like that, it's very rewarding, and it's awesome," said Sjostedt.
Rosa was arraigned Monday in Plymouth District Court on two counts of enticing a minor and one count of accosting a person. He was ordered held on $25,000 cash bail and is scheduled to return to court on May 26.
He was also sent to Bridgewater State Hospital for further evaluation.
