Best Buy employees probably have to deal with a lot of strange situations upon repairing electronics, but a recent incident with an Iowa man has proved to be particularly awful. BuzzFeed News reports that the man in question spilled gravy all over his laptop, later bringing it to a Best Buy store to receive repairs. Upon repairing the computer, a tech worker at the store discovered child pornography on the computer he brought in.
"During this file transfer process employees at Best Buy 'Geek Squad' observed multiple images they believed contained child pornography," the complaint provided to BuzzFeed News stated. Robert L. Watson of Des Moines brought his gravy-soaked laptop to the Best Buy and wanted the files on it transferred to a new device. "Once this transfer was complete both computers were collected by Des Moines police as evidence."
During an interview with the police, Watson stated that he was the only person to use the laptop. He described images that were discovered on the computer by detectives, but the police noted, "Robert advised that he downloaded the images because he wanted to tell other people about them." He has since been charged with ten counts of possession of child pornography.
"They don’t search for the material, but inadvertently discover it in the normal course of repairing a computer," public relations director for Best Buy Paula Baldwin explained. "When we do find what appears to be child pornography, we have a legal obligation to notify law enforcement and we inform our customers of this prior to doing any work. Law enforcement determines a course of action based on the evidence, as they did in this situation." Baldwin says that Geek Squad employees find around 100 computers a year that contain child pornography.
Watson was arrested on Tuesday and is currently being held on a bond of $50,000 at Polk County Jail.
