Meta Engineer Arrested, Accused of Grooming Who He Thought Was a Teen in Unofficial Online Sting

A man in New York City who reportedly works for Facebook’s parent company, Meta, was arrested for allegedly sexting and trying to meet up with a girl he believed to be 13 years old.

Josh Felker, 44, pleaded not guilty to charges of disseminating indecent material to minors and endangering the welfare of a child at his arraignment on Thursday, according to The New York Post.

A spokesperson for Meta told the outlet that Felker has been placed on leave and that it “will cooperate with law enforcement in its investigation.”

In a video shared by the vigilante group Predator Poachers Long Island posted on Monday, July 20, Felker admits to sending inappropriate messages to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl but was really one of the group’s operatives posing in an unofficial online sting.

The outlet reports that Felker first made contact with the decoy account in May and had been messaging it regularly ever since. Throughout their chats, he allegedly tried to teach the girl how to masturbate and sent multiple lewd photos and videos of himself. He also reportedly attempted to set up an in-person meeting with her.

In the video, the group approached Felker, who is married and has a small child, outside his apartment in New York City on Wednesday, July 15. He told the group that he didn’t want to speak inside because his mother-in-law was visiting and he didn’t want her to learn of his infidelity. He went on to admit to being the one sending the messages and blamed his sexless marriage and even reportedly stated that he’d done this once before with an underage girl.

The video ends with police confronting and arresting Felker and him learning that the nearly two-hour chat he had with one of Predator Poachers Long Island’s members was being recorded from afar.

He presented his evidence to the officers, and they took Felker into custody.