Man 'Lured' Minor To Teaneck Hotel Via Snapchat: Bergen County Prosecutor

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — A Pennsylvania man was arrested Tuesday for allegedly arranging transportation for a minor to a Teaneck hotel so they could have sex, prosecutors said.

Thomas G. Rutledge of Green Lane, Pa. was charged with second-degree luring and with third-degree endangering the welfare of a child, said the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office on Thursday.

On Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, the Teaneck Police Department contacted the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Unit regarding an alleged incident of luring that occurred within their jurisdiction, prosecutors said.

An investigation determined that a child under 16 was contacted on Snapchat by an unknown person who engaged in sexually explicit conversations.

"While communicating online with the child, the unknown user arranged transportation for the child to meet him at a Teaneck, NJ hotel with the purpose to commit sexual acts against the child," prosecutors said. "Following a months-long investigation, detectives determined that the unknown user was [Rutledge]."

Investigators notified both the Department of Homeland Security – Homeland Security Investigations and the Pennsylvania State
Police.

Rutledge was arrested at his Green Lane home by the Pennsylvania State Police and taken to the Bucks County Correctional Facility in
Doylestown, Pa. pending extradition to Bergen County.