Back to the Real Salt Lake Newsfeed

Utah man charged with raping 16-year-old he met through number-neighbor challenge

A 19-year-old Utah man has been charged with raping a 16-year-old girl he met after randomly contacting her father as part of the online text-your-number-neighbor challenge.

Issac Francisco Alonso of Gunnison was charged in Sixth District Court with rape, a first-degree felony; and obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony.

The challenge, which trended on Twitter this summer, involves texting your “number neighbor” — texting the first nine digits of your cell phone number, and then adding or subtracting one from the final digit.

According to a probable cause statement, Alonso sent a text to the girl’s father, and asked his daughter to explain the number-neighbor challenge.