A woman made a disturbing discovery when she spotted the text messages of a fellow passenger on a flight to San Jose, California.
San Jose police say the woman allegedly saw a man texting about sexually molesting children.
โThe conversations were very particular in regards to sex acts that were to be performed on โฆ children,โ a San Jose police spokesman said, news.com.au reports.
The female passenger photographed the manโs texts and informed the cabin crew. The man has been named as 56-year-old Michael Kellar.
Kellar told police that the texts were just a sexual fantasy game.
As CNN reports, detectives later inspected the manโs phone and found he had allegedly texted Gail Burnworth, in Tacoma, Washington.
Seattle police said the messaged contained โinformation that the woman had access to the children either as a caregiver or a babysitterโ.
A five-year-old and seven-year-old were found in the womanโs care.
As The New York Times reports, Kellar has been booked with two counts of attempted child molestation and two counts of solicitation of a sex crime.
Burnworth was arrested, not formally charged, and then released in Tacoma. She was arrested on Friday for conspiracy to produce child pornography.
San Jose Police Sgt. Brian Spears told CNN that the actions of the female passenger were incredible heroic.
โIโd like to highlight that if it wasnโt for this particular passenger taking action to alert the staff and alert the police, this catastrophic event would have been horrific,โ he said.