Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy. – Proverbs 31:9 (ESV)
On a dark, rainy night, he sat in his office and stared at the copy of the warrant that had been left with him. His office and home were now devoid of all electronics, laptops, PCs, phones and all forms of media storage. For the first time in a long time, he suddenly felt cut off from the world and he felt uncertain about tomorrow.
According to the officers delivering the warrant, a number of complaints had been filed against him and he should expect to be served very soon.
He had wondered for years how long he could sustain his personal hobby and he now had his answer. He didn’t understand the big deal. None of the women who had gone with him were forced against their will in any way and they had all willingly and knowingly submitted to photos being taken in compromising situations or risqué clothing. For those he had tied up and beaten, he was sure that they had enjoyed it, otherwise why would they have returned for more? As for drugging some of them before he photographed them, he knew that this helped them to relax so what was the harm in that?
Of course, it didn’t hurt that he had threatened to reveal their photos on the web or share them with their family or employers if they dared to tell others or failed to return to feed his appetite. He also leveraged such threats to view child porn using their mobile phones. After all, it didn’t hurt that if they ever blew the whistle on him, their phones were the ones on record as having viewed child pornography. He was smart enough to never use his own phone.
Taking photos of underage girls was a little risky and so he didn’t engage much with them because the risk wasn’t worth the reward even though the reward was great and almost irresistible.
Having one of his buddies appear in the photos with the married women was particularly titillating and useful since the mere threat of sharing photos with a doting husband were usually more than enough to bend even the strongest will to his needs.
And he always sent photos of his victims to his newer victims as proof that he had many victims. He felt that this somehow amplified his power and besides, it might put some creative ideas into the minds of his other victims for future photo sessions.
He paused and reflected on some mistakes he had made also. The app he had installed on their phones for reading private SMS, sending SMS to their phone as if it came from other people and sending SMS from their phone to other people had come in handy but was awkward to explain if it were found. The same was true for opening up the settings on their phone so that he could track the location of their device at any time but this one wasn't as difficult to explain if discovered.
"It's too late to worry about it now", he thought.
And now it was coming to an end.
Some a&*hole by the name of Jim had sent him a note outlining what was about to happen and now it was happening just as Jim had said it would. Jim had signed it because, as he indicated, he wanted the person in question to know where justice had come from.
Meanwhile, someone had been circulating rumors of what he had done amongst family, friends and colleagues over the last couple of weeks but he had been able to deflect them as being rumors started by a jealous competitor or jilted lover.
Criminal charges, however, were another matter and he would not be able to hide the truth much longer.
Then there was the matter of being followed. He could have sworn that in the past couple of weeks, he saw unusual cars parked outside work and his home. One night going to the local hotel to meet one of his victims, he got spooked when he saw one of the surveillance cars parked outside the hotel and he fled.
He would need to wait until he got home to warn his network that something was amiss. He wouldn’t be able to send them any more photos nor would he want to accept anymore.
Sighing and with a slightly shaking hand, he folded some papers into his backpack, locked his office door and headed down the street towards his car.
Suddenly, headlights illuminated his path from behind and he paused and looked behind him. He recognized the car as being one of the ones that had been conducting surveillance on him and he quickened his pace.
As he neared his car, a dark figure suddenly stepped out in front of him and addressed him by name.
His heart began beating fast as he realized that no avenue of escape existed for him.
“Justice comes in many forms. Please step into the vehicle”, the dark figure said quietly.
Chuck’s cellphone rang and he picked it up quickly. After a perfunctory hello, he sat in silence, nodding occasionally and when the caller had finished speaking, he spoke a curt “good work” before hanging up.
Taking his personal phone out, he texted a message to several people waiting for an update.
While his job in the Department of Homeland Security was often dreary or boring, it often came with its own special side projects that provided a sense of satisfaction.
The world was always better when there was one less scumbag in it.
The traditional justice system was too slow anyway.
And besides, with this scumbag in the bag, DHS monitoring of the emails and cellphones of the scumbag's network would soon reveal if others who were participating in the capture and sharing of such photos would run for the border. He hoped they would. Accidents happen, after all.
He paused for a moment and wondered how their families would receive the news about their spouse's activities over the years. He didn't care. “They deserve what they get”, he thought. They had left a trail of broken families in their wake and some even had blood on their hands with the suicides they had produced.
"Another day in the Corps", he said quietly as he prepared to go home for the night.
Jim read the text on his phone and turned to the lady sitting next to him. “You can relax”, he smiled, “It’s been fixed.”
“What happened to him?”, she asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.
“That’s not important”, Jim replied, “What matters is that it is fixed.”
The Bottom Line
The above story is based on a true story and has been greatly abridged for the sake of brevity. Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of specific individuals.
There are three messages here:
- For those who are in trouble, no matter how embarrassing the reason, a single call for help can make all the difference in your Life. Make the call.
- For those who insist on creating pain for others, your luck eventually runs out. Justice comes in many forms.
- For the rest of us, we must always be ready to take action when we sense someone is in trouble. It doesn’t take a big action on our part to create a tremendous result.
Do you know someone who is in trouble or do you sense they are in trouble?
Are you in trouble?
Take action.
If you guess wrong, you may be slightly embarrassed and might even get a laugh out of it.
If you guess right, you may save a Life.
Someone out there is waiting for your help.
Maybe you are waiting for someone to guess that you need help.
What are you waiting for?
In service and servanthood,
Harry
