Middleburg sex offender arrested on molestation charge in Georgia

Joseph Lundstrom

PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – Officers investigating a report of child molestation in north Georgia say a 30-year-old convicted sex offender from Middleburg, Fla., was arrested after traveling to Peachtree City to meet with a 13-year-old victim he contacted over several social media platforms.

Officers say they were told Sunday that messages between Joseph Lundstrom and the victim were sexual in nature, and they determined he was aware the victim was only 13 years old and had initiated sexual contact at least twice. Patrol officers set up a third meeting with the victim, where Lundstrom was taken into custody without incident.

Lundstrom was charged with two counts of child molestation, two counts of sexual battery, enticing a child for indecent purposes, furnishing obscene materials to a child, computer exploitation of a child, having an open container of alcohol, loitering and prowling, and driving with a suspended license.

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The offender is being held in the Fayette County Jail. Investigation is continuing and additional charges are expected.

The Peachtree City Police Department would like to share some tips for parents to alert them that their child may be at risk on line.

  • Your child spends large amounts of time on-line, especially at night.
  • You find pornography on your child's computer.
  • Your child receives phone calls from men you don't know or is making calls, sometimes long distance, to numbers you don't recognize.
  • Your child receives mail, gifts, or packages from someone you don't know.
  • Your child turns the computer monitor off or quickly changes the screen on the monitor when you come into the room.
  • Your child becomes withdrawn from the family.
  • Your child is using an on-line account belonging to someone else.


What should you do if you suspect your child is communicating with a sexual predator online?

  • Consider talking openly with your child about your suspicions. Tell them about the dangers of computer-sex offenders.
  • Review what is on your child's computer. If you don't know how, ask a friend, coworker, relative, or other knowledgeable person. Pornography or any kind of sexual communication can be a warning sign.
  •  Use the Caller ID service to determine who is calling your child. Most telephone companies that offer Caller ID also offer a service that allows you to block your number from appearing on someone else's Caller ID. Telephone companies also offer an additional service feature that rejects incoming calls that you block. This rejection feature prevents computer-sex offenders or anyone else from calling your home anonymously.
  • Monitor your child's access to all types of live electronic communications (i.e., chat rooms, instant messages, Internet Relay Chat, etc.), and monitor your child's e-mail. Computer-sex offenders almost always meet potential victims via chat rooms. After meeting a child on-line, they will continue to communicate electronically often via e-mail.


Should any of the following situations arise in your household, via the Internet or on-line service, you should immediately contact the police.

Your child or anyone in the household has received child pornography;

Your child has been sexually solicited by someone who knows that your child is under 18 years of age;

Your child has received sexually explicit images from someone that knows your child is under the age of 18.


If one of these scenarios occurs, keep the computer turned off in order to preserve any evidence for future law enforcement use. Unless directed to do so by the law enforcement agency, you should not attempt to copy any of the images and/or text found on the computer.

What can you do to minimize the chances of an online exploiter vctimizing your child?

  • Communicate, and talk to your child about sexual victimization and potential on-line danger.
  • Spend time with your children on-line. Have them teach you about their favorite on-line destinations.
  •  Keep the computer in a common room in the house, not in your child's bedroom. It is much more difficult for a computer-sex offender to communicate with a child when the computer screen is visible to a parent or another member of the household.
  • Utilize parental controls provided by your service provider and/or blocking software. While electronic chat can be a great place for children to make new friends and discuss various topics of interest, it is also prowled by computer-sex offenders. Use of chat rooms, in particular, should be heavily monitored. While parents should utilize these mechanisms, they should not totally rely on them.
  • Always maintain access to your child's on-line account and randomly check his/her e-mail. Be aware that your child could be contacted through the U.S. Mail. Be up front with your child about your access and reasons why.
  • Teach your child the responsible use of the resources on-line. There is much more to the on-line experience than chat rooms.
  • Find out what computer safeguards are utilized by your child's school, the public library, and at the homes of your child's friends. These are all places, outside your normal supervision, where your child could encounter an on-line predator.
  • Understand, even if your child was a willing participant in any form of sexual exploitation, that he/she is not at fault and is the victim. The offender always bears the complete responsibility for his or her actions.


Instruct your children:

  •  to never arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they met on- line;
  • to never upload (post) pictures of themselves onto the Internet or on-line service to people they do not personally know;
  • to never give out identifying information such as their name, home address, school name, or telephone number;
  • to never download pictures from an unknown source, as there is a good chance there could be sexually explicit images;
  • to never respond to messages or bulletin board postings that are suggestive, obscene, belligerent, or harassing;
  • that whatever they are told on-line may or may not be true.