Sep 8, 2026 · 55 min · 12 segments
Garrett Gross hunts child predators.As the founder of Operation 17:2 Garrett and his team use adult decoys posing as minors online to identify adults who demonstrate sexual intent toward children…
Johnny HansenHost
Andy LambHost
This is all I've been thinking about all week is there's got to be times when you're doing this job where you've looked a man in the eye who has written all these crazy things and you look at him and you realize, even now, this guy's not going to change.
And your heart has got to wrestle with, I'm going to turn this guy into the police and he's going to be out in no time and then he's just going to do this stuff again.
How does that wrestling go? Is there a guy that comes to your mind when you think about that? Is there instances that come to your mind and can you kind of detail that for us?
I think from a human nature perspective, I feel that every time we're dads, you know what I mean? Like what I want to do to the person.
As in, I think of, so when I go into these conversations or go into these confrontations, I should say when I'm on my way or, or, or pretty prior to pretty close to the confrontation, I'm going to look and review all the messages.
But I review these messages and I see the stuff that 40, 45-year-old, 35, 65 are saying to these teenagers, right? And that builds emotion, right? I feel anger, which is a good anger.
And in my mind, I start to formulate things that I'm going to say to this person.
I'm like, something comes over me every single time it's happened where there's some sort of compassion.
And it's not, again, it's not for the act, but it's like, how did you get there? How did you become the way that you did? Something happened that has made you that way.
And from that those confrontations it fuels my ministry outside because if you have we have to we just have to do better like there's so much work to do if we can make better husbands and better fathers you have less child predators and the only way to do that is through christ you know so Um, I have my own feelings, you know what I mean? But at the same time I go, I try to think back to the scriptures and back to my own life where if you would have, if you would have told, ask somebody 12 years ago, if I would be here talking about Jesus, they would have said no.
You know what I mean? Or you look at the apostle Paul who like literally not only was he skeptical about Jesus, but he was, uh, a hunter of his followers, right? And then wrote the New Testament.
This is all I've been thinking about all week is there's got to be times when you're doing this job where you've looked a man in the eye who has written all these crazy things and you look at him and you realize, even now, this guy's not going to change.
And your heart has got to wrestle with, I'm going to turn this guy into the police and he's going to be out in no time and then he's just going to do this stuff again.
How does that wrestling go? Is there a guy that comes to your mind when you think about that? Is there instances that come to your mind and can you kind of detail that for us?
I think from a human nature perspective, I feel that every time we're dads, you know what I mean? Like what I want to do to the person.
As in, I think of, so when I go into these conversations or go into these confrontations, I should say when I'm on my way or, or, or pretty prior to pretty close to the confrontation, I'm going to look and review all the messages.
But I review these messages and I see the stuff that 40, 45-year-old, 35, 65 are saying to these teenagers, right? And that builds emotion, right? I feel anger, which is a good anger.
And in my mind, I start to formulate things that I'm going to say to this person.
I'm like, something comes over me every single time it's happened where there's some sort of compassion.
And it's not, again, it's not for the act, but it's like, how did you get there? How did you become the way that you did? Something happened that has made you that way.
And from that those confrontations it fuels my ministry outside because if you have we have to we just have to do better like there's so much work to do if we can make better husbands and better fathers you have less child predators and the only way to do that is through christ you know so Um, I have my own feelings, you know what I mean? But at the same time I go, I try to think back to the scriptures and back to my own life where if you would have, if you would have told, ask somebody 12 years ago, if I would be here talking about Jesus, they would have said no.
You know what I mean? Or you look at the apostle Paul who like literally not only was he skeptical about Jesus, but he was, uh, a hunter of his followers, right? And then wrote the New Testament.
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