Residents of a La Vista neighborhood were surprised to learn about the arrest of a man on child pornography charges.

A cyber tip led police to the suspect. On Friday, they served a search warrant at The Pointe Apartments at 87th and Giles Road, removing computers and pictures believed to belong to 44-year-old Erik Rabes, an active technical sergeant at Offutt Air Force Base. He was charged with possession and attempted distribution of child pornography.

William Abboud and his 4-year-old son live in the same building as Rabes, but until learning about the arrest on Saturday, Abboud said he never suspected a thing. "There are so many kids that live around here and it's good that someone like that is caught and now people are aware."

"To think that my daughter was out here running around," said Lara Pipes, who lives in a neighboring apartment complex. She said news of an alleged child porn user in her neighborhood was scary. "Her dance studio is right over there and I've been letting her walk over there a lot since we've moved here. I'm thinking that maybe that wasn't a great idea now. If someone is looking at pictures of naked little boys and girls, what's going to stop them from taking the next step from bringing someone into their apartment? They could have easily been within his grasp." Rabes' apartment sits in the shadows of a park and is less than a block from a preschool. "I'm glad that he is caught and hopefully behind bars and will be for a long time. You never know what's going on behind closed doors in an apartment complex. It's scary."

To give you an idea just how widespread this problem is, the U.S. Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000 Web sites that offer child pornography, with 20,000 new images of child porn posted on the Internet every week. Child pornography is illegal worldwide, so it's hard to calculate an exact figure, but studies estimate revenue generated from child pornography range from $200 million to $1 billion a year.