A 61-year-old Gardnerville man was arrested Wednesday for suspicion of five felony counts of possession of child pornography after an investigation and search warrant that led to the discovery of thousands of images involving children, according to a Carson City Sheriff’s Office booking report.

Daniel William Phillips was taken into custody at 9 am following an investigation that also involved the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office and Internet Crimes Against Child Task Force. During the investigation, it is estimated that thousands of child pornographic images, videos and other digital evidence was recovered.

According to the booking report, deputies met with a local store employee, who reported that on May 20 the suspect returned a television he purchased at the store. The suspect, Phillips, provided his membership card identifying him to complete the return. The card included information and a photograph of the member.

The employee checked the television to see if it was still operational and discovered a USB thumb drive attached to the television that Phillips returned. The employee thought the thumb drive may have been a store thumb drive used to run demonstrations for televisions on display. The employee plugged into the thumb drive to see if this was a store thumb drive and discovered child pornography on the device, the report states.

The employee reported this to his supervisor who contacted the Carson City Sheriff’s Office to file a report.

The employee, who was extremely emotional and uncomfortable explaining what they saw, described to the deputy what they saw as sexually explicit photos of children between the ages of 5 to 10 years of age. The CCSO deputy took possession of the USB thumb drive and the television.

A Carson City Sheriff’s Office detective reviewed the initial report and confirmed that the content on the USB contained child pornographic content involving children estimated to be between the ages of 3 to 12 years of age, according to the CCSO report.

The detective reviewed store video surveillance, the store membership photo and the suspect’s drivers’s license and was able to identify the suspect as Daniel William Phillips.

During the initial review of the thumb drive there were at least 2,500 files on the device, the report states.

The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was contacted as the suspect lives in Gardnerville. Through a collaboration with detectives of DCSO and CCSO, a search warrant was obtained for the man’s residence and the Internet Crimes Against Child Task Force was also requested for further assistance with forensic processing of the residence.

Detectives executed the search warrant of the man’s home, in which Phillips was there. He was told of the investigation and what was found. Phillips did not deny being in possession of child pornography. He was reading his Miranda rights in which he requested an attorney.

During the search of Phillips residence, it is estimated that thousands of child pornographic images, videos and other digital evidence was recovered. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will be filing for criminal charges against Phillips in their investigation, the report states.

The ICAC Task Force took possession of numerous electronic devices and federal charges are pending against Daniel Phillips after their digital forensic review, the report states. Bail: $40,000.

— All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff’s Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.