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This week, 47-year-old Christopher Kruithof filed a complaint against the FBI, alleging that the federal law enforcement agency was blocking his phone after he viewed child pornography on it. They weren’t—police reportedly chalked it up to a ransomware virus.




Kruithof’s complaint was, as you may have already realized, effectively an admission that he was viewing child pornography. He also reportedly showed the police a photo of child pornography he had on his phone at the time of the complaint. The officers let Kruithof go—and then got a warrant to search his phone.

Officers arrested Kruithof on Wednesday on two charges of first-degree possession of child pornography. When they asked if he had any other images on his phone, he reportedly responded, “Oh sure.” He then willingly handed over two phones with hundreds of child porn images on them, according to police. He also admitted that he had printed 30 pages of child porn from library printers across Connecticut, but disposed of them, unsure of whether it was acceptable to have them.


“Kruithof stated that he has a problem and just currently enrolled in therapy,” police said, ctpost reported.



About that ransomware: The FBI has reported on viruses in the past that send users a message purporting to be the agency and claiming their device was identified as “having been associated with child pornography sites or other illegal online activity,” locking the device and requesting money. It’s unclear what ransomware had allegedly infected Kruithof’s phone, but whatever it was, it prompted him to unwittingly turn himself in.

[ctpost]