SPRINGFIELD -- Greene County prosecutors credit employees of a computer repair store with providing the tip that led to child pornography charges against a former teacher and Boy Scout troop leader.  Gary Rademacher of Springfield faces 10 charges of possessing child porn after investigators say they found thousands of photos and hundreds of videos of young teenage boys in sexual situations.

  Computer repair stores are not mandated reporters of suspected crimes or sexual abuse but the staff at Aztec Computer Outfitters felt they had an ethical obligation.

  Mike Green, the store's owner, says most computer owners who have been on the Internet have something questionable on their hard drives, even if they don’t intend to do so.  In this case, however, Green says, they weren't just questionable but they also were illegal.

  When Rademacher went to Aztec, police say, he asked technicians to restore his hard drive, no matter what the cost.  While recovering the data, they found disturbing images of boys under age 14.

  “Unfortunately, we do run into this from time to time,” said Green.

  Green says they work to protect customer privacy but, in cases like this, they feel they have a public responsibility.

  “It's not like we go through looking for those sorts of things but it will just show itself on the screen in the course of doing our work,” he said.

  In this case, technicians eventually turned over 225,628 pictures and 520 movie files to prosecutors.

  “If his computer hadn't crashed and he hadn't decided to take at least his hard drive into the computer people, and they weren't able to catch this, who knows what would have been happening,” said Greene County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Russ Dempsey.

  “We're really glad to help in any way we can.  This is a bit of a pervasive problem in our country and even locally.  If there's some small thing we can do, we're glad to do it,” said Green.

  If convicted, Rademacher could face four years in prison for each of the 10 charges.

  Investigators don’t believe any of the photos or video involves children in Springfield with whom Rademacher might have worked or taught.