Gravy spill leads to child porn discovered on Iowa man's laptop, police say
DES MOINES — An Iowa man is charged with 10 counts of child porn possession after spilling gravy on his laptop and taking the computer to Best Buy to save his files, court documents said.
Des Moines resident Robert Leo Watson, 54, allegedly took the computer to a store's repair desk and purchased a new computer onto which his old files would be copied.
As Geek Squad employees transferred his documents from the "gravy covered computer" to the new device, they spotted what they thought was child porn, a criminal complaint said.
Des Moines police collected both computers as evidence, according to the complaint filed in late April. Watson was arrested and booked Wednesday morning.
As a first offense, the child porn possession charges are an aggravated misdemeanor.
Police said Watson was able to describe several images detectives found. He admitted to saving the images with file names such as "13 year old" and "14 year old's" (sic), documents said.
Watson remains at the Polk County Jail with a $50,000 cash bond. He is expected in court on May 10.
Documents show he applied for court-appointed counsel Wednesday. It was not clear if his request was granted.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Gravy spill leads to child porn discovered on Iowa man's laptop, police say
