Theodore Alan Aird has a simple enough request; he took his computer to Best Buy to have data transferred from one hard drive to a new computer. The technician at Best Buy discovered 700 sexually explicit photos of pre-adolescent children. Although Aird had deleted the images, thumbnail images were seen during the transfer procedure.
The technician reported the images to Clackamas County Prosecutor Bryan Brock, as reported by Oreganlive.com. Brock, who has handled child pornography cases, said the photos were not as severe as those he regularly sees, but possession of them was still illegal.
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78 year old Aird was sentenced to 30 days in jail, three years of probation and he was ordered to register as a sex offender. Judge Douglas Van Dyk said, “This is not a victimless crime. By downloading lewd photos, you essentially created a market for the abuse of children.”
Brock said Best Buy did the responsible thing, since failure to report would have resulted in a Class A misdemeanor offense that can carry a sentence of one year in jail. He warned that any computer technician should report the name and address of the computer owner to the police if he or she has child pornography on the computer.
Best buy was founded by Richard M. Schulze and Gary Smoliak in 1996. The company started as an auto specialty store until the 80s, when its focus was more on electronics.
