| MCSO |
| Joshua Larsen a.k.a. "Cowboy Cowboy." |
There's good news and bad news from the front lines of the war on perverts.
The bad news: they're out there. The good news: a lot of them are idiots willing to believe that a child they met in an Internet chat room is actually a kid and not just a cop posing as one.
A Phoenix man with the cyber-handle "Cowboy Cowboy" is the latest Valley resident to take the bait and, like Friday's alleged perv-du-jour, "Cowboy" had some pretty self-humiliating things to say to a "kid" he met on the Web.
The kid, of course, was actually a Scottsdale police officer patrolling cyber-space for pedophiles.
Joshua Franklin Larsen, 36, of Phoenix, was arrested Saturday when he showed up at a Scottsdale residence to meet what he thought was a 14-year-old girl.
Larsen had spent the previous 24 hours sending sexually suggestive messages to a cop he thought was the girl.
By "sexually suggestive," we mean things like "yer pussy is called a kitty" -- a "kitty" Larsen then offered to pet, according to court documents obtained by New Times.
"Ya sit on my lap. I will put my hands on yer lap and rub yer kitten," Larsen told the girl.
Larsen met the girl (the officer) in a chat room and started asking questions a 36-year-old man shouldn't be asking a minor.
Larsen sent the girl a picture of himself standing in front of his truck. Then, he asked the girl if she wanted to see the truck in person.
Then, the kicker: Larsen asked the girl "when does your mom get home lol."
Larsen, according to the court docs, then asked the girl what she was wearing under her shorts. The girl didn't answer, so it seems Larsen drew his own conclusion, which was "nothing."
Then he offered to "tease" her by "holding her butt."
Larsen and the girl, after more talk about the work schedule of the girl's mother, agreed to meet at a house in Scottsdale. When Larsen got there, driving the same truck seen in the photo he sent, he was met by police and placed under arrest.
Larsen told officers that he thought the girl was 18 -- a point that was invalidated by the chat logs that show the girl specifically telling him she was 14.
Larsen finally admitted he knew the girl was a minor and that he was the one chatting under the handle "Cowboy Cowboy."
He then told police he knew it was illegal to meet a child for sex and that what he did was wrong.
When asked what he thought should happen to people who do that sort of thing, Larsen told officers, "They should be punished and taught about predators." That was right before admitting that he uses the Internet to find kiddy-porn and has used the words "little girl" in a Google search.
Larsen's been charged with luring a child for sexual exploitation. His next court date is scheduled for Friday.
