A man is using a popular dating app to find victims and rob them blind, but one of his victims is fighting back by sharing his story with 10News as a warning for others.
"Usually, everything goes fine when it comes to these apps," said the victim.
Just before Thanksgiving, he said he met someone on Grindr, a popular dating app for gay men.
He told 10News, "We started messaging. He seemed kind of cute. He needed to be picked up, which was a little annoying, but I said, 'OK, whatever.'"
The victim brought the man home, where he said they engaged in a sexual encounter.
"He seemed well dressed. He didn't seem threatening or anything like that," the victim said.
However, once the man left, the victim realized something was wrong.
"I went to Costco and got to the front of the line and I'm like, 'Umm, my debit card's missing,'" he said.
He immediately went to the bank and found out his debit card had already been used.
"I was obviously very shaken and upset and angry that I had something stolen from me, and I figured I probably wasn't the only one," he told 10News.
He filed a police report and then alerted others.
"I made a new profile with his picture and said, 'Hey, look out for this guy,'" said the victim.
Sure enough, other victims quickly came forward.
"There's been about a total of four victims that have come to me from the fake pic profile and probably more because I'm getting something new every day, at this rate, where someone says, 'That guy robbed me, too. That guy robbed me, too,' so there's been quite a pattern of this guy doing this for a while," the man said.
San Diego police have not confirmed the identity of the thief, but police said a man with a similar name was arrested for burglary in April and convicted.
For now, the victimized Grindr user is thinking twice.
"Yeah, if they don't have their own car, maybe don't meet them," he said.
