They tried to fight crime dressed as Batman or the Flash, but four young men from the British Columbia community of Chilliwack could use a caped crusader of their own now that Mounties are considering charges against them.
RCMP are investigating the foursome after they posed as underage girls online and solicited older men for sexual encounters. When those older men showed up at prearranged locations, the so-called superheroes confronted them in costume, exchanges that were caught on video and parodied the NBC TV series To Catch a Predator.
But police appear far from amused by the videos. They say the young men didn't consider the consequences of their actions.
The young men – two of whom are 17 years old, one 18, and the other 20 – uploaded at least four clips to video-sharing website YouTube. One clip shows Batman and the Flash yelling at a man at a local McDonald's restaurant. Another depicts Batman meeting a man at a vehicle. Batman pretends to be a Chilliwack police officer and points to his costume when the man asks to see a badge.
"You are a pedophile," Batman tells him.
The four young men have not formally spoken about the experience and their names have not been released. A post on the group's Facebook page denied any of its members had given interviews. A person who was calling media outlets claiming to be Batman, the post said, was a fake.
RCMP spokeswoman Corporal Tammy Hollingsworth called the young men "good kids" who didn't realize the effect their hijinks would have and the headlines they would make.
"This activity is not something the RCMP would condone or recommend," she said. "These youths and men didn't consider the potential consequences of their actions, or the impact to their personal safety, or the safety of other youths and the community."
RCMP first learned what the foursome was doing not because they handed evidence over to police, but because a high-school administrator heard a rumour that female students were trying to attract adult males through the Internet. The administrator contacted police, who launched an investigation.
Cpl. Hollingsworth said none of the men in the video – the alleged sexual predators – have been identified. She said the investigation is still in the preliminary stage and it's unclear if charges will be laid against those who made the videos, or those who were lured to appear in them.
Members of the RCMP's child exploitation unit have been called in. Corporal Mat Van Laer, the exploitation unit's spokesman, said the "stunt" the four young men pulled could have put children in the community at risk.
"We're dealing with potential sexual predators, people that have a deviant sexual interest in children," he said. "They have arguably now been aroused to a certain degree by a chat.… You have no control on the actions of that person afterwards. Depending on their state of mind, what if they do go out and run across another child and feel the urge to offend?"
Cpl. Van Laer said the RCMP conducts similar online stings, though he declined to provide details to protect the integrity of such investigations.
In Vancouver, about 100 kilometres west of Chilliwack, streets in the poverty-stricken Downtown Eastside are often patrolled by Thanatos, a man who performs good deeds while wearing a superhero costume.
Thanatos, who watches for crime but calls police at the first sign of trouble, did not approve of how the foursome handled themselves.
"Doing things like this could result in them getting injured or killed," he wrote in an e-mail. "What if the 'predator' had a gun with him?"
The reaction online was overwhelmingly positive, however. A Facebook group dedicated to the young men swelled with compliments Wednesday.
"I tip my hat to these three teenage boys for taking a stand to try and make their community a safer place," wrote one of the social networking site's users.
Said another: "I think what you did may have caused those men to think twice about doing it again. I congratulate you for your ingenuity and bravery."