Daniel Phillips, 61, was arrested Wednesday on multiple charges of possessing child pornography.
He was arrested after returning a television to Costco when a store employee found a thumb drive in the TV that contained sexually explicit images of children between the ages of 3 and 12.
Phillips was identified by store officials from his membership information and connected to the returned TV by video footage of him returning it to the store. According to the arrest report, there were 2,500 images on the thumb drive, at least 100 of them pornographic images of children.
After obtaining a search warrant and accompanied by a Douglas County investigator and an expert from the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, deputies went to the Phillips home in Gardnerville and arrested him. The arrest report says Phillips did not deny possessing child porn.
“During a search of Daniel’s residence, it is estimated that thousands of child pornographic images, videos and other digital evidence was recovered,” the report states.
Carson deputies charged him with five felony counts of possession of child pornographic images. His bail was set at $40,000.
But the report concludes that the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will be filing additional criminal charges after its investigation.
The ICAC Task Force took possession of numerous electronic devices and federal charges are also pending against Phillips.
