A man with no arms was arrested in North Bergen on October 5 after an online predator sting group filmed the confrontation, and the footage has since spread widely online. Carlos Simon-Vega was taken into custody following what the group behind the operation described as a sting targeting an underage decoy. The alleged meeting was around 7 p.m. that evening.
The arrest was first reported by Daily Voice, which detailed how Simon-Vega was accused of attempting to meet a 15-year-old girl in North Bergen, New Jersey. The sting was carried out by EDP Watch, the online predator exposure group founded by Houston-based YouTube personality Jidon Adams, who goes by JiDion and built his platform by shifting from comedy pranks to civilian-led decoy operations, according to his Wikipedia entry. EDP Watch shared footage of the arrest, and a member of the group said on camera that Simon was in North Bergen and under arrest after coming to meet a 15-year-old girl, per the same account relayed by Daily Voice.
Court records show Simon-Vega was charged with second-degree luring or enticing a child. The charge was filed by North Bergen Police Officer Kiana Rosado, who was sworn in as a full-time officer in September 2025 after serving as a Special Law Enforcement Officer and earning a criminal justice degree from Felician University, according to Hudson County View. North Bergen police were contacted for additional details, the outlet's report notes.
What New Jersey's Luring Statute Requires
Under N.J.S.A. 2C:13-6, luring or enticing a child is classified as a second-degree indictable crime in New Jersey, carrying a state prison sentence of five to 10 years along with mandatory sex offender registration upon conviction, according to the Passaic County Criminal Lawyers. The offense involves an attempted lure of a child, or someone reasonably believed to be a child, to a qualifying destination with intent to commit a criminal offense. New Jersey law also mandates that anyone convicted of a second or subsequent luring offense serve a mandatory minimum prison term of one-third to one-half of the sentence without parole eligibility, according to Denholtz Criminal Defense.
A Pattern of Civilian Stings and Legal Pushback
EDP Watch's North Bergen operation is far from an isolated case. In November 2025, the Broome County Sheriff's Office in New York charged an Endwell resident with five felonies after JiDion himself contacted detectives with digital evidence gathered during an online decoy operation, according to a release from the Broome County Sheriff's Office. A March 2025 report described two arrests.
Not every civilian sting ends in a serious charge, however. A similar viral predator sting at an IHOP in Teaneck resulted only in an obstruction charge instead of luring. The statutory standard for luring is demanding. That outcome underscores why law enforcement agencies and prosecutors nationwide, including state police in Arkansas and local prosecutors in Ohio and Indiana, have issued public warnings cautioning that unsanctioned civilian predator stings can compromise evidence admissibility and jeopardize criminal cases, according to THV11.
Why Evidence From These Stings Can Be Challenged
Defense attorneys and judges in multiple jurisdictions have successfully challenged evidence collected by private predator-hunting groups, citing chain-of-custody gaps and statutory violations when civilian decoys, rather than sworn officers, conduct the online interactions, according to the Brancato Law Firm. That evidentiary vulnerability has become a recurring theme as more of these viral confrontations work their way through the court system, raising questions about whether footage shared on social media will hold up once a case reaches a judge.
It remains unclear how Simon-Vega's case will proceed or whether his defense will raise similar evidentiary challenges, since North Bergen police had not yet responded to requests for additional details, per Daily Voice. For now, the viral video stands as the public record of an arrest that has drawn renewed attention to the uneasy relationship between online predator-catching operations and the formal demands of New Jersey criminal law.
