By Bethania Wonagseged –
At the agreed meet-up place, Dustin Lampros waits to talk to the person he has only met online. He’s going to put him behind bars
“We’re catching grown adults coming to meet with what they believe are children to engage in sexual activity,” Lampros says.
Dustin Lampros, an MMA fighter who freelances busting predators in Florida, uses the moniker 561 Predator Catcher on social media.
He started just after he re-committed to the Lord and starting praying for a ministry to get involved with in 2022. His friend showed him what creeps were doing online luring unwitting victims to meetups.
Lampros was disgusted and unsettled. He decided to use is cool wits and fighting prowess to bring down some of these evil people.
He set up a fake profile, Amy, 13 and within seconds grown men were reaching out to “her.”
“Instantly, I knew I was meant to do something,” he says. “I could help.”
Lampros is not a 13-year-old girl – he’s a 32-year-old professional fighter, who pummels opponents. His cage name is Scrappy.
After exchanging photos and agreeing to meet up for sexual acts, Scrappy shows up and scans the scene for the would-be predator. When he sees him, he approaches, calls him by name and begins peppering him with questions:
Are you looking for someone? What are you here for? What were you hoping for?
He wears Oculus glasses to record the conversation for potentially incriminating confessions, which he’s got a knack for prying from predators. Sometimes a friend films from a certain distance.
“I’ve gotten really good at getting these guys to just kind of … admit everything to me,” he said.
When their answers to his questions don’t match the conversations decoys shared with him in screenshots, he brandishes his phone.
“I have all the messages right here,” Lampros reveals.
They call 911 and hand the suspect and the evidence over to police.
Lampros has completed about 100 catches since 2022. About 10 have resulted in convictions, he said. Others still simmer in the legal pipeline. Twice, the predators were women. One was a law enforcement officer. Several have been teachers.
Initially, cops didn’t want his meddling in police work. Cops generally discourage vigilante justice.
But as he’s established credibility for effectiveness, they now take his evidence.
“It took years for police departments and state attorneys to actually look at us as legit and to make these cases stick,” Lampros says.
Lampros trains at the MMA Science Academy in Sunrise, Florida. The other fighters and coaches celebrate his successes, said the gym owner, Roger Krahl.
“He’s got the perfect personality for it. He stays very calm and keeps his cool, which is obviously a big thing in the cage,” Krahl says. “When you get in there and fight, you’ve got to be calm under pressure. You’ve got to be able to think.”
Twice the situation spiraled dangerously. Once, a man he was questioning pulled a gun from his car. Lampros and his helper fled. Another man wielded a box cutter during their interaction.
Before he re-committed his life to the Lord, Lampros was only about raising his level to get to UFC.
But, “I felt very empty,” he says. “My whole identity had been behind being an MMA fighter, being ‘Scrappy’ the fighter. I knew that having UFC as my idol wasn’t going to fulfill me. That’s when I realized there’s got to be something more for me.”
It was then that he was introduced to the idea of catching child predators. “When you start focusing on God’s plan, the doors kind of open up,” he says.
“Once I figured that out, and I started living for Him instead of living for Scrappy the Fighter, my life has evolved so much more into such a blessing.”
He still hopes to be selected as a fighter in the UFC.
But the fight against evil is far more important, he says. “Knowing that God’s on my side, whatever happens, I believe it’s God’s will.”
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