Joliet Man May Have Stored Child Porn on Animal Control Computer: Cops

A Joliet man wanted on child pornography charges may have kept illegal images of an underage girl having sex on his Will County Animal Control work laptop, according to a complaint for a search warrant on file in Will County court.

Mark Hnat, 33, faces three counts of child pornography. The warrant for his arrest carries a $100,000 bond.

On August 25, police armed with a search warrant hit Hnat’s Woodhill Court home. Police said they found “titles consistent with child pornography” on a desktop computer in the basement of the residence but the actual files were missing.

One of Hnat’s coworkers from animal control happened to show up, police said. She was reportedly checking on his whereabouts. The animal control employee told police that Hnat had a laptop issued by the agency that he brought back and forth to work.

An officer headed over to animal control and seized the laptop so it could be searched. Police believed he may have transferred the files from the desktop computer to the laptop.

Hnat was not charged until three months after his home was searched. According to a criminal complaint, he possessed three child pornography videos on the day of the raid. The videos were on a computer hard drive.

Hnat remains at large.