Coweta County ICAC arrest: Airport worker faces child charges

We want to shift gears now and talk about a situation in Coweta County where a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has led to an arrest there. Deputies just released body camera video showing officers taking the suspect into custody. And our Doug Evans is live with what that new footage showed deputies and these charges that this person faces This is now Doug. Yeah, Tom. Hi, good afternoon. Hopefully we can get that video up for our viewers just fed into the Fox 5 newsroom a short time ago. Kind of an embarrassing situation for this man. His name is Robert Wilkinson, 59 years old from Coweta County, coming home from his airport job. Apparently he works for what we will say is a major Atlanta airline. He was on his way home from Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, still in his airline I guess outfit, uniform of sorts, still wearing his identification tag for Hartsfield Jackson. And he was relieved of that by deputies with the Coweta County Sheriff's Office and taken into custody. This all stems from an investigation, we're told, here at the sheriff's office with their ICAC unit. That stands for Internet Crimes Against Children, a national tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Flagged some online material, apparently downloaded to his computer. They began investigating that and issued a warrant for his arrest. And he was taken into custody late last week, charged. with sexual exploitation of a child. They tell me that they have seized all of his electronic devices. They will be combing through those devices for other evidence in this case, and if they find anything, they will probably present that to the grand jury for additional charges against him. So that's the very latest, Tom. Yeah, it's it never ceases to amaze me, Doug. The skill with which agencies like Coweta County working in conjunction with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tracks these people down so effectively move in for the arrest. Obviously, in this case, because we were watching your video when they least expect it coming home from his job at the airport. And taking him into custody, obviously he'll face numerous charges, but he'll sit there and wait in jail until those charges are announced or will he bond out between now and when he that grand jury makes up its mind. Yeah, typically these guys take a little while to bond out. They have to go to superior court to do that because this is a felony charge. So initially they are denied bond. They will have a bond hearing of sorts. And then most of these guys eventually do bond out with some heavy, heavy restrictions. On that bond and then he'll be free to return to home. We don't know much about him other than he's 59 years old. Apparently a family guy of some sorts with some adult children and may not be at that house or anymore. Not real clear on that. So, but we understand that he has a family of some sorts. You say, Tom, that it never ceases to amaze you the efficiency at which law enforcement investigates this. It never ceases to amaze me that these guys continue, allegedly, to continue in this sort of behavior, story after story after story we've presented here on Fox 5, especially especially within the jurisdiction of Coweta County He has agents that do nothing else but follow up on tips coming from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and yet these guys to continue, allegedly, doing this sort of thing. Well, by the way, I don't know if you noticed, just as an aside, before we let you go, there was like no expression on this guy's face when he was taken into custody. Expression-less, I would go as far as to say. Yeah, I did notice that. I had to do the blurring on that. We blurred his corporate logo out, blurred out his ID for the tag. We do that typically. It's not the company that he works for. It's not their fault. Thank you, Walt. Right. So if he had been doing this at work, that would be a different thing. If people associated with his company were at risk in some sort of way, asked all of those questions, apparently that's not the case. And so we journalistically make the decision to blur out those corporate logos. And we do it not just for this. Atlanta Airline, but for smaller mom-and-pop businesses, too, as well. Just did the other day on Friday of a very similar arrest. Doug Evans down in Coweta County with the arrest. Doug, and the video to go along with it. Appreciate it very much. Thanks.