27 pairs of children's underwear found in Clear Lake man's home after search warrant, deputies say

CLEAR LAKE, Texas (KTRK) -- A man in Clear Lake is accused of sharing more than 100 inappropriate pictures and videos of children. Through a search warrant, 27 pairs of children's underwear were discovered inside his home, according to records.

Aldo Vidal, 34, is charged with three counts of possession of child pornography.

Records state there was evidence of sexual contact offenses with children inside the home where Vidal lives with his parents. His address listed on court documents is within walking distance of at least three schools including: St. Clare of Assisi Catholic Church, Armand Bayou Elementary School, and Armand Bayou Montessori School.

When ABC13 asked Lt. Freddy Croft, a task force commander for the Houston region's Internet Crimes Against Children unit working on this case, if Vidal knew any of the children in the pictures and who the items belonged to, he said, "We are still really early on in the investigation because we just did the search warrant this week. We don't have any information as far as where those items came from."

Officials were able to track the suspect down and found out about the pictures through a cyber-tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"Years ago, we were receiving 2,000 to 3,000 tips a year and we are now on pace for about 23,000 tips this year for our area," Croft said.

Lt. Croft attributes that increase to a combination of improved technology and a rising trend of younger kids on the internet.

"With that, we see a huge increase in the number of kids blackmailed online, sextortion cases have grown, and then kids as young as kindergarten are doing online schooling since the pandemic," Croft said.

While Croft says many of their tips come from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he says they also have to get creative in catching predators, especially with advanced technology, allowing some offenders to become more sophisticated.

"We do proactive investigations where we go online to catch a predator style and target these individuals on these messaging boards and intercept between them and children," Croft said.

The bond amount for each possession of child pornography charge was set to $12,500. According to court documents, more charges could be filed.

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