REDWOOD CITY – A 37-year-old Redwood City man was arrested this week on suspicion of trying to meet a 17-year-old girl for sex, police said.
The man and the teen initially met as coworkers at Mathnasium, a math tutoring center, located at Sequoia Station, the Redwood City Police Department said in a news release Wednesday.
On Monday, the man started a text-based chat conversation with the teen, police said.
The teen told the man her age, which he acknowledged, but he continued to message her, police said, adding that “the messages became lewd and sexual in nature.”
Detectives managed to get him to come to a location where he believed he was going to meet the teen for sex, police said.
The man was instead arrested and booked into San Mateo County jail on charges of contacting a minor to commit a felony and arranging a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes.
Condoms were found on the man, police said. Detectives also searched his home for additional evidence.
Police lauded the teen for stepping forward and cooperating with the investigation.
“Without the victim’s assistance, we wouldn’t have known that this predator was in our city,” police said.
Detectives are continuing the investigation to determine if there are any additional victims, police said.
Anyone with information related to the case can contact the police department at 650-780-7100.