A former Surrey Creep Catcher member who helped the controversial group “blast” alleged pedophiles on social media is feeling the white heat of the media himself over a sting he did in Surrey four months ago, his related arrested and where his four-year-old daughter was at the time.
Lance Loy, 37, claims he’s the victim of “a pretty bad misinterpretation.”
“Honestly, I’m tired of hearing about all this,” he told the Now-Leader on Wednesday. “It’s kind of horrible, man, it’s not great to be blasted on the news like this and have all this bad outlook on you, especially when it couldn’t be further from the truth.”
“It’s like day after day I’m on the news, somebody else from the group is on the news,” he said. “I’d rather just be done with it all.”
Loy, and Surrey Creep Catchers president Ryan LaForge, are expected to appear in Surrey provincial court next Wednesday on one count of assault each related to a “citizens arrest” on April 3 on a man who allegedly came to pay for sex with a six-year-old outside the Tim Horton’s at Central City Shopping Centre, in the 10100-block of King George Boulevard.
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Members of the group pose as children online, arrange to meet with adults who think they’ve been been communicating with a child, confront them, film them and then post the footage on Facebook. In this case, Burnaby resident Kuljinder Singh Bhatti, 35, was subsequently charged with trying to lure a minor for a sexual purpose and making an arrangement with a person for a sexual offence involving a person under age 18. He is expected to appear in court on Sept. 7.
Loy, on the other hand, made headlines earlier this week when CTV reported that during a child custody hearing in June a provincial court judge ordered him to not expose his four-year-old daughter to any Creep Catchers activities after the girl’s mother complained their child had been with him during the April 3 sting.
As a result, Loy says, people assume the child was by his side at the time. “First of all, I would never bring my daughter, per se, with me to confront the person, ever. But that’s how it sounds.”
“Every person in the public wants to throw their two cents in, and judge based on misinformation,” he said. “It’s pretty horrible. I’m the super responsible amazing parent and like I said my child was in no way in jeopardy whatsoever.
“People want truth,” Loy noted. “Like I said, the truth is my daughter wasn’t there, she didn’t see anything, she didn’t hear anything. She did not see me get arrested, my daughter was with my trusted friend, she was actually with two or three of my friends, and stuff like that, at a different location in the mall. Not right beside me, not there confronting the person, not all these things they said or at least left it open to interpretation, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
As far as the judge’s order is concerned, he said, “I’m not even involved in that (Creep Catchers) anymore whatsoever so this isn’t even an issue and I made that pretty clear to the judge as well. So I had no problem, if he put that in place it was not a big deal to me, I’m not involved with that anymore anyway.”
Loy said at the time of the April 3 sting his young daughter was with some of his friends “across the mall.
“When we confronted the person, we did that on our own,” he explained. “I went back to see my daughter, and then the police asked for me to come and give a statement and at that time, so I left my daughter with my friends and then I went downstairs, and the police said ‘You’re under arrest,’ and I said ‘OK, no problem, well my daughter’s here I need to get my friend my house keys and my bank card,’ and everybody’s taken care of.
“And my friends took my daughter back to my house, and told my daughter I had to go to work,” he said. “Dad had to go to work. No big deal. The big deal is I got arrested. There was no concern for my child and then the mother blew it out of proportion because I didn’t phone her and let her know. Basically I get one phone call, and I called a lawyer, and I already had my daughter taken care of by my friends, at my house, with ample enough of everything.”
“I know I’m an awesome parent, I know my child has never been in danger or anywhere nearly close to that. I’m the super over-protective parent and I would never do anything that would ever, ever, ever put my daughter — especially my daughter — in any harm’s way, at all.
“So when people think I got arrested with my child there, yes, technically, my child was at the mall, but so was a hundred other people and their families. So when they say that I brought my daughter to a sting, to the actual confrontation, you know what I mean, my daughter was across the mall, no idea, no nothing, with people that I trust,” Loy told the Now-Leader. “My daughter didn’t see anything; my daughter wasn’t even close to present at the time, and when I did end up getting arrested, my daughter still didn’t see anything. She had no idea, zero.”
Loy said he takes care of his daughter full-time, during weekdays.
“I’m not a weekend dad, I’m not like some guy that has his kid once every couple of weeks or something; I’ve got my daughter fulltime. So for anybody to think that, oh, you know, he put his daughter in jeopardy, these people don’t know me and don’t know how I parent my child and don’t know how good of a parent I am.”