Interrogation Of David Romero - Busted In Operation Bad Habits
September 18, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readIn the interrogation room, David Romero sits handcuffed, then uncuffed, across from detectives who have just read him his rights. He is calm, almost conversational, and he has a theory about why he is there. Over the previous two days, he explains, he has been contacted on Reddit by multiple profiles that were "painfully obviously fake"—profiles claiming to be fourteen-year-old girls, using the same pictures, the same scripted language, the same area code. He was sure it was either a scammer or a sick person getting their jollies off. So he decided to play along. "I'm not one for kids," he tells the detectives. "I prefer older ladies myself." He thought he was wasting a pervert's time. He did not think he was talking to an actual child.
The Trap That Wasn't a Trap
Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.
Read Full Summary →Free • No credit card required
Never miss an episode of True Crime Stories
Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
What you'll learn
- 1 (01:35) **Interrogation Begins - Miranda Rights** - David is read his rights after being handcuffed and brought into the interrogation room; he agrees to speak.
- 2 (03:40) **The Setup: Reddit and Fake Profiles** - David explains how he uses Reddit and his encounter with suspicious profiles claiming to be 14.
- 3 (05:35) **Two Distinct Encounters** - David details two separate conversations with profiles he believed were fake, noting their identical, scripted nature.
- 4 (07:06) **Phone Call Details and Suspicion** - David recounts the phone call with the second profile, where the poor audio quality and similar voice confirmed his suspicion it was a scam.
- 5 (17:56) **The Plan to Meet** - The detective presses David on the phone conversation where they discussed meeting in person at a gas station.
- 6 (20:33) **Detective Confronts David with Evidence** - The detective reveals they have the text messages and the phone call recording, directly challenging David's story.
- 7 (24:00) **The "Reasonable Person" Argument** - The detective argues that a reasonable person would have stopped the conversation immediately upon hearing "14," not continued with explicit talk.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/true-crime-podcast-2026-police-interrogations-911-calls-and-true-police-stories-podcast--5693470/support.
More from this podcast
True Crime Stories →