Apartment Complex Maintenance Worker Arrested After Child Porn Tip, Cops Say

Content Warning: The following article contains subject matter pertaining to alleged sexual activities, some of which contain graphic detail.

Falls Township police are putting word out to the public about a local apartment complex maintenance worker who was arrested.

Stephen Kobren, 61, of Falls Township’s Fairless Hills section, was arrested this week on a charge of unlawful contact with a minor. He was preliminarily arraigned before District Judge Jan Vislosky and sent to the Bucks County Correctional Facility on 10 percent of $100,000 bail.

According to police, an investigator received two anonymous tips in early June via Crimewatch that Kobren, of the Lakeview Terrace Apartments, was in possession of child pornography. 

An investigation was launched and police began looking into Kobren, who is a maintenance worker at the complex, police said.

Kobren was located inside an empty apartment he was cleaning. He spoke with two investigators and admitted he has an attraction to deceased child actress Heather O’Rourke, police said. The young actress died at the age of 12 of congenital stenosis in 1988,

“During the course of the conversation, Kobren stated that he ‘fairly seldom’ looked at child pornography. He has ‘accidentally’ seen child pornography on his desktop computer and tablet while looking at adult pornography, police said.

They also noted in an affidavit of probable cause that Kobren goes on a porn website to look at explicit media, including adult women defecating, police said.

Kobren took investigators to his apartment in the Lakeview Terrace complex. The unit contained images of O’Rourke, who starred in the horror film “Poltergeist” and the sitcom “Webster,” on numerous walls, police said.

As Kobren took investigators into his bedroom, he allegedly smiled and pointed to the ceiling, revealing “several hundred photographs of mostly females defecating.” There were also photos of O’Rourke, adults having sex, and nude pre-pubescent females, police said.

“You can see what I like,” he reportedly said of the images on the ceiling.

Kobren admitted he was in possession of 15 to 20 books that depict children in different stages of development, including nude images, police said.

Kobren went to the Falls Township police station to speak further, the 61-year-old man stated he sometimes masturbated while thinking of O’Rourke and nude children.

The man also told investigators there was a young girl in the neighborhood and he described her in detail, police said.

Kobren knew the girl’s name, her activities, and what street she lived on, police said.

“Kobren remarked that [the girl] looks like one of the females that are depicted in the aforementioned book. Kobren admitted to masturbating to [the girl] on several occasions, with the last time being over a month ago. Kobren felt that [the girl] looked like O’Rourke and was a ‘reincarnation’ of her. In the past, Kobren has seen [the girl] wearing her hair in pigtails and a ponytail like O’Rouke,” investigators wrote in court papers.

Kobren also said the girl was trying to impress and tease him at times, police said.

An investigator reported contacting the 9-year-old girl, and she recalled seeing Kobren stare at here while she played with her dog.

Authorities said they executed a search warrant over the course of three days at Kobren’s apartment this week.

Police recovered clothing, children’s underwear, bathing suits, and diapers he obtained through unknown means.

Kobren has lived in the apartment complex where he works for 22 years. He has been employed by the complex for more than a decade, police said.

Police also released images of the truck he is known to drive.

Kobren has a past guilty plea for indecent exposure in Falls Township. The incident happened in July 1999, police said.

Anyone with information on Kobren or who suspect he might be in possession of one of their items is asked to contact Detective Stephen Reeves at 215-949-9100 ext. 430 or s.reeves@fallstwppd.com, or anonymously, at tiplines@fallstwppd.com

Editor’s Note: All individuals arrested or charged with a crime are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The story was compiled using information from police and public court documents.

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