MONROE, N.C. — A local mother is outraged, claiming child pornography popped up on a new electronic tablet she purchased for her son.
Lisa Escobar said hours after she picked up the Trio tablet from layaway at the Kmart in Monroe, the graphic images popped up as her sons were watching a movie on the tablet.
"They said it was red at first, then went to green, and then these child pornographic images came up," Escobar said. "It was sickening to me, it really was. It turned my stomach that my boys saw this."
Escobar said they immediately shut down the tablet, but that it was too late.
"The horror in their eyes told me more than I wanted to know," she said.
Escobar said she took the tablet back to Kmart the next day, where employees referred her to the Monroe Police Department.
"We are in possession of the tablet right now and we are in the process of determining whether or not it was child pornography," said city spokesman Pete Hovanec.
Hovanec said tech experts will then attempt to trace the IP address to the person who downloaded the pornography onto the tablet, but added it would be a difficult task considering the number of people who had access to the tablet prior to Escobar's purchase.
"Just opening those pictures changed our lives," Escobar said.
The maker of the Trio tablet, Mach Speed Technologies, sent Channel 9 a statement that read, "We were notified this morning of the alleged incident with one of our Trio Tablets. We never have had such a thing happen with one of our products. We certainly understand the inappropriateness of the allegations and plan to investigate fully. We will work with law enforcement and its partners to determine exactly what happened."
Kmart issued the following statement: "We take this matter very seriously and are conducting our own investigation."
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