A parade of potential predators in a small town

Because we’re in such a remote location, most of the men coming to the undercover house have to drive miles and miles over country roads. Some even cross state lines.

One man pulled up to our house from Reynoldsburg, Ohio, 112 miles away. He drove more than two hours to meet with someone who said she was an underage teen home alone. 

It’s two o’clock in the morning. Like all the other men who visit, he has no idea our hidden cameras are rolling...

Tim Isaac: Where you at?

Del: I have to go change out of my clothes okay?

Isaac: Yeah.

Del: Just hang out at the bar for a second. I’ll be right back down.

Isaac: (laughing)

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent (walks in): It’s a little late to be prowling around these parts huh?

Isaac: Yeah it is isn’t it.

Hansen: Why don’t you have a sit right over here for me?

His name is Tim Isaac, screenname “parknride_469,” a 42-year-old training manager for a global transportation company.  He’s been chatting online this evening about having oral sex with a girl who said she was 15, “sadie-the-smarty.”

He wants to know if the sex talk has made her aroused. “Sadie-the-smarty” types, “Well not yet...talk doesn’t do anything for me.”

“Parknride” types back, “Well, my tongue will.”

Hansen: What makes a man get in a car and drive two hours?

Isaac: I don’t know just somebody wanted to meet and I wanted to meet them I guess.

Hansen: At 2 o'clock in the morning?

Isaac: I didn’t really want.. I mean I wasn’t looking for nothing.

Hansen: You walk into a house.

Isaac: Well, I was kinda scared about it to be honest with you.

Hansen: Well, you walked in.

Isaac: I’m not looking for… to like, do anything. I got boys that are 20 and 21, sir.

Hansen: Sons?

Isaac: Yes sir.

Hansen: What if one of your kids was home alone and some guy walked in the back door all happy as heck just to be here?

Isaac: To be honest with you, I wouldn’t like it. Sorry, I’m just nervous.

Hansen: What made you think it was okay at 42 years old to walk into a home at ah roughly 2:30 in the morning where a 15-year-old girl was apparently home alone?

Isaac: Well, I wasn’t so sure she was 15 to be honest with you.

Hansen: Well, that’s what she said on the Internet.

Perhaps I can refresh his memory by reading some of his chat log:

Hansen: ‘You’re only 15, a little young for this aren’t ya?’

‘Yup I’m 15 and no I’m not.’

‘Are you still a virgin?’

Isaac: Stupid question for an older man to ask a girl like that.

Hansen: ‘But baby 15 can get me 20.’

Isaac: It probably can, it probably will.

Hansen: Have you ever done time before?

Isaac: Um, very little time for some DUI.

Hansen: DUI?

Isaac: Nothing like this sir.

Hansen: You ever do this sort of thing before?

Isaac: No this is the first time I’ve ever done something like this.

That’s the same claim we’ve heard from almost every man we’ve ever confronted. Most say they really weren’t going to do anything sexual. Our sting in Ohio is no different. But one subject does come up for the first time: religion.

Davut Ozkan (on hidden camera): No, this is first.

Hansen: This is your first time.

Ozkan: Yeah. I’m like I shouldn’t do that is also against my religion.

Hansen: It’s against your religion.

He’s 27-year-old Davut Ozkan, screenname “nakzox,” a graduate student from Turkey.  He had a sexually-charged online chat with a decoy posing as a 15-year-old.

Hansen: You say at one point, "I don’t want to have any problem you know, kissing is okay."

Ozkan: Yeah.

Hansen: But you also say in the next breath “Have you ever seen a ______.”

Ozkan: Uh-huh.

Hansen: “I have on the Internet,” she says. Then you say, “Do you want to see mine? You can play with my blank.”

Ozkan: Yes, please don’t read. You can read to yourself.

Hansen: I mean, it sure seems you knew what you were talking about here and you knew what you wanted from this 15-year-old girl.

Ozkan: I don’t want to have sex.

The 27-year-old admits he knew what he was doing was against the law.

Hansen: If you’re so religious, if you knew it was wrong, why did you walk into this house?

Ozkan: I don’t know.

And he wasn’t the only one claiming to be religious: There's 20-year-old Josh Tuttle, screenname “goodbody1330.”

He’s been chatting online with someone who says she’s 13 and a virgin, “jessies_messy13.” After she tells him she has a big screen TV, he says, “Hehe... that’s great...so we can watch movies and cuddle, kiss and makeout, then head up to your bedroom and touch each other and have sex.” 

Then he adds, “We can get drunk if you want to, if it will make it feel that much better.” 

And then "goodbody1330" walks into the door.

Del: Just sit at the bar for a second ‘k I’ll be right back down.

Joshua Tuttle: Okay.

Del: Did you bring the rum?

Tuttle: No I’ll explain when you get down.

Del: Okay.

Hansen: Well why don’t you explain it to me instead?

He says he didn’t bring the rum because his brother drank it. “Goodbody1330” goes on to explain that making the decision to come here was a tough one. He says he went to his best friend and believe it or not, says he also turned to the church for guidance.

Tuttle: I have low self-esteem and I have no one else to turn to but God, so I went and talked to my pastor.

Hansen: And what did this pastor tell you?

TUttle: “It’s wrong to do and that he said you should have more faith in yourself.”

Hansen: But you’re here Josh.

Tuttle: To make new friends.

Hansen: With a 13-year-old girl home alone.

He says he really only came here to watch movies and hang out but his chat and something else tell a different story.

Hansen: Did you bring condoms with you?

Tuttle: No sir.

Hansen: There are no condoms in your pocket?

Tuttle: I have one but that’s just it.

Hansen: All right, well, that’s just one lie.

Tuttle: I carry that with me all the time.

Hansen: But you said you didn’t bring any and you did so that’s a lie.

Josh: Yes sir. But I corrected myself, I’m sorry.

Now let’s look at a truly unusual case: Here’s a man who seems to be casing the house, afraid to pull in. After driving by several times, he finally makes his move and walks in the back door.

Del: Hold on, I want to take my coat off after sweating to death, I was freezing.

Hansen: Why don’t you come in and have a seat real quick?

John Frantz: Okay.

He’s 33-year-old John Frantz, a mechanical engineer. He’s been chatting online with a decoy who says she’s 14. Unlike all the men you’ve met so far, Frantz, whose screename is “netbuckeye” is very careful when it comes to talking about sex.

When the decoy “chickygrrrrl” asks “Got any condoms?”  He says, “What are those, just kidding.”  Then he says, “No worries.” She says, “Is that a yes?”

And he replies “Don’t worry I’m not going to do anything without a condom.” But when I confront him, he says he has no interest in sex.

Hansen: I’m confused though, so if you don’t have any interest in that sort of activity, why then chat up a 14 year old girl and come to visit her?

Frantz: I’m lonely, that is the bottom line.

Hansen: Really?

Frantz: Yes, very lonely.

And once again, this man also says he’s religious.

Hansen: Isn’t there a church group, a saloon or…

Frantz: There is I go to church every Sunday and in fact, I’ve gone to a new church now because I’m not happy with my old one.

Hansen: So does this new church teach you it’s okay to come over and visit 14 year old girls?

Frantz: I would say not.

Hansen: Who are home alone with no parents…

Frantz: They would not recommend that, no.

Then Frantz says something we’ve never heard before...

Frantz: Can I have you read something?

Hansen: Sure.

He tells us that out in his car, there’s an envelope on the passenger seat. So Del goes out to get it.

Frantz: I was concerned for my safety, you have to understand, I mean things like that happen.

Hansen: You show up and somebody beats you up or something

Frantz: Well yeah, yeah stuff like that or worse. I mean it could have taken my life for all I know.

He opens the note and starts to read:

“At 8 pm tonight I’m meeting a person who I met online...”

He goes on to say that the girl tried to lure him into talking about sex which he politely declined. And that he is suspicious about her identity.

“...if she really is who she says she is, my intention is to befriend her and try to mentor her.”

So could this man really be here just to mentor a troubled teen? Darke County Detective Burns says he’s not buying this story.

Det. Burns, Darke County Sheriff’s office: We refer to it at the office as an “alibi letter.”

Hansen: Alibi letter?

Det. Burns: Yeah. It was composed in such a way that it’s our belief the he put it there that if he should get caught made it appear that he was completely innocent.

And the detective says the way Frantz cased our house does not make him look like a man on a rescue mission.

Det. Burns: When you look at a vehicle that pulls up in front and stops, drives by, comes back, does the same thing again... If it is his intent that he’s going to go in and counsel this girl… why would you struggle with that issue? I think we saw the battle from within as to whether or not he was going to get caught.

But because his case is so unusual he doesn’t get arrested until after his interrogation. As for all the other men, the detectives don’t hesitate to take them into custody.

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