UPDATE: RIVERSIDE: Tips lead to arrest of man who tried to lure 6-year-old into public restroom

UPDATE: Dec. 13, 12 p.m.

RIVERSIDE – After receiving numerous tips from concerned citizens, City of Riverside police officials announced they had tracked down and arrested a man accused of trying to lure a 6-year-old girl into a men’s bathroom inside a Food 4 Less at 3900 Chicago Avenue in Riverside. (Click link for original story.)

Following tips and investigative leads, detectives located, interviewed, and ultimately arrested Theodore Brian Childers, 78, of Simi Valley.

At the conclusion of their investigation, authorities booked Childers into the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside on suspicion of annoying or molesting a child, according to Riverside Police Public Information Officer Ryan Railsback.

The investigation, which caused a flood of activity on social media and prompted tips from citizens throughout the City of Riverside as well as all over Riverside County, began Wednesday, Feb. 15, when an adult male, who officials later identified as Childers attempted to lure the young girl into a restroom at the grocery store.

As the girl walked by herself towards the woman’s restroom and began to open the door with her mother and grandmother standing nearby, surveillance footage from the store’s CCTV surveillance cameras showed Childers attempt to entice her towards him by telling her “he would give her a treat,” according to a March 8 social media release from Riverside Police Department.

The man, who is seen on the surveillance footage standing in the doorway of the men’s restroom mere feet from the little girl, can be seen motioning for her to come towards him from the entrance to the women’s restroom.

The girl then appears to flee into the woman’s bathroom. She later told her family about the incident, prompting the intense and thorough investigation.

The 6-year-old victim has not been identified due to her age.

Detectives from the Riverside Police Department’s Sexual Assault – Child Abuse Unit were assigned to investigate the incident.

After detectives had exhausted all available investigative leads, they released the surveillance video footage through social media in an attempt to seek the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect.

Countless people who read the story and watched the surveillance video footage immediately recognized the shirt the man was wearing as possibly being from a nearby fitness gym that had recently opened just doors from the Food 4 Less, in the 4100 block of Chicago Avenue.

Information received from the numerous anonymous tipsters indicated that the suspect may frequent the gym.

Detectives contacted the employees at the gym, showed them the surveillance clip and asked that they contact the police if the suspect was later seen at the gym, Railsback explained in a followup press release after Childer’s arrest.

On Thursday, March 9, shortly before 7 a.m., an employee from the gym called Riverside police department officials and advised a subject matching the provided description was at the gym.

“Officers arrived within minutes and were able to detain (Childers),” said Railsback. “Childers was transported to the police station for further investigation and questioning by detectives.”

Childers was later arrested and booked in jail a few hours later.

An online jail records search revealed Childers remains in custody and is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon, March 13, at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Detective C. Olivas at (951) 353-7136 or via email.

 

Contact the writer: [email protected]

Trevor Montgomery spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including the Robert Presley Detention Center, the Southwest Station in Temecula, the Hemet Station, and the Lake Elsinore Station, along with many other locations.