To catch a computer repair man

Dear Congressman,

I noticed after Chris Hansen received national prominence with his "To catch a predator" series that it started putting faces on the wide range of individuals that seem to believe that it alright to molest or otherwise abuse underage members of society.

As a group they are despised, and rightfully so, as their type of crime has no place in our society. With that said, what is the deal with all these pedophiles and the computer repair guy. An example is this snippet from the February 8th Cincinnati Enquirer:

BATAVIA -- A local man who fled police after being indicted for child pornography was arrested Friday in San Diego, Calif.
John Kopkowski of Batavia was indicted on 50 felony child pornography counts in Clermont County on Wednesday.
Police allegedly found hundreds of images of children in various states of nudity and engaging in sexual acts on a computer he had taken in to be repaired. He fled after police searched his apartment.


Same think happened to Gary Glitter, the glam-rock star who's "Rock & Roll, Part 2" is a staple at sporting events, spent time in jail in England when a repairman noticed "indecent material" on his harddrive.

Since this continues to happen again and again, I have to say to these people: Hello!!! When you load up a bunch of pictures that would general cause the local town folk to hunt you down with torches, pitchforks, and a large noose, don't you think it is a good idea to throw away the computer hard drive and start over rather than taking it to a computer repair shop? Have you ever met a computer technician? The average one is probably looking on your hard drive for some pornography for their collection, but are disgusted when they find out that you only have the perverted and illegal stuff. Hence the ensuing call to the police.

The "To catch a predator" series came to an end because of publicity. All these pedophiles finally figured out that an underage kid on the other end of the computer enticing you to come to their house is probably an undercover cop tapping away on a keyboard that records every keystroke. But clueless child abusers continue to fall over themselves to have someone they don't know delve into the contents of their computer.

Then again... lets just keep it that way... if that's the best way to catch them, then maybe I will by a beer for the next person who tells me they repair computers for a living and say : "nice job!".