An employee of one of the largest children's clothing retailers in the country is in jail, charged with 10 counts of possessing child porn.
Now, Pinellas County sheriff's detectives are investigating to see if there are any victims associated with his former employer, The Children's Place, located in the Tyrone Square Mall in St. Petersburg.
According to arrest records, deputies had been investigating Reneir Atillo, 24, since July of last year. They executed a search warrant at his home in Pinellas Park late last week where they found a hard drive with 10 videos depicting child pornography located in the nightstand next to his bed.
The report says Atillo admitted to looking at pornography but only accidentally came across the videos involving children.
"For me it's more of an alarm that it's this close to home," said Drayton Browne, Atillo's neighbor.
Browne immediately started questioning his 12-year-old son when we told him about the charges.
"You ever see him?" he asked his son. "Anybody ever ask you to go in their house?"
He continued while his son shook his head to answer both questions.
Browne saw investigators at the home last week and assumed they had found a local car burglar or someone with drugs.
"You never know when someone's dealing out of their house or producing drugs,” he said.
We knocked on Atillo's door and spoke to a man who answered. He only said Atillo is "just a kid,” adding, "He made a mistake."
Officials with The Children's Place sent us this statement.
"This individual has been terminated and is no longer affiliated with The Children’s Place in any way. The Children’s Place conducts criminal background checks including a search of the national sex offender database, and these background checks did not indicate any prior criminal convictions. The crime as alleged is in no way reflective of The Children’s Place, its culture and its standards of conduct.”
