Police: Day Care Owner Molested Girl

INDIANAPOLIS -- A phone sex employee is credited with a tip that helped police arrest an Indianapolis day-care center operator on suspicion of fondling a 9-year-old girl at his home.

The girl told Indianapolis police last month that Ron Eiland (pictured), 59, touched her genitals in September at his home on the city's northeast side.

Eiland, who was arrested Friday on two counts of child molestation, operates Lil' Sprouts Learning Center, a day-care facility in the Castleton area, according to the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Police had been to the home on the morning that he is accused to have molested the girl. A phone sex operator in Ohio called police to tell them that a man who had called her from the home put a 9-year-old girl on the line with her, and that she believed that he was masturbating while the girl was on the line, 6News' Cheryl Jackson reported.

"In early September, IMPD responded on a call from a phone sex operator who stated they were talking to a client and identified him by name and location," police Sgt. Paul Thompson said. "During the course of their business, he placed a 9-year-old girl on the telephone to talk to the operator. There were some other indications there was something else going on there."

An officer questioned Eiland and his 8-year-old daughter that night, but he denied talking to a phone sex operator. Officers said that they weren't convinced, but did not have enough evidence at the time to make an arrest.

A friend of Eiland's daughter was staying at the home that night, police said.

"About six weeks later, the parent of that 9-year-old made a police report that apparently she was molested that night by the same individual calling in to the phone sex operator," Thompson said. "In my entire career in law enforcement, which is about 30 years, I have never heard of such a thing."

Police obtained search warrants for Eiland's home, computers and phone records. They are also investigating to determine if his daughter or any other children might have also been molested.