A cyber twilight zone in Ft. Myers, Fla.

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The man who gave other potential predators advice
27-year-old Eric Thornton’s is screenname "balin79." He drove four hours thinking he was going to meet a girl who told him online she was 14. At one point during the chat he gets on his Webcam and masturbates and types “Did you see it?”

The decoy says “not really, too dark” and he types back “shoot” and then brags about what he had just done.

Now he’s in our house.

Story continues below ↓

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Online, he said he’d bring alcohol and condoms so the actress asks him about it.

Actress, decoy (hidden camera footage): What kind of alcohol did you bring?
Eric Thornton: I brought Absolute Citron. I brought mandarin orange. I brought a shot of Jagermeister. I got Busch. The—
Actress: Wow—
Thornton:   And I don’t know, I can get some more if I need to.
Actress: Did you bring condoms?
Thornton:   Uh-huh (Affirms).
Actress: Great.
Emily: Sure did.
Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent (walks in): Well, with all that it sounds like you’ve got a pretty big night planned huh?
Thornton:   Yep.
Hansen: Two different kinds of vodka?
Thornton:   Uh-huh (Affirms).
Hansen:    Bought some beer. And what else?
Thornton:   That’s it.
Hansen:    That’s it. Condoms. So what was your plan here tonight?
Thornton:   My plan? Just to hang out.
Hansen:    To hang out?
Thornton:   Uh-huh (Affirms).
Hansen: And you thought it was okay as a 27-year-old, to come here to meet a 14-year-old with alcohol and condoms?
Thornton: No, not at all.
Hansen: Then why did you do it?
Thornton: Because I just thought it was like a good idea.

A good idea? It turns out, he says, this isn’t the first time he’s gone after underage teens.

Hansen: How often do you meet underage girls online and set up a visit?
Thornton: Not that much.
Hansen: Ballpark it for me.
Thornton: Probably 10, 15.
Hansen: Have you met them in person?
Thornton: uh-huh.
Hansen: And what did you when you meet them in person?
Thornton: Just well actually I didn’t really meet them.

He keeps changing his story. Finally he admits he has a problem when it comes to chatting with underage girls online.

Thornton: I’ve went to counseling many many times.
Hansen: So based upon the fact that you’re here to meet a 14-year-old, that counseling isn’t working out too well is it?
Thornton: Not at all.

It’s possible that the counseling isn’t working because he says he stopped going about five months ago.

Hansen: Did you plan on spending the night?
Thornton: Yes I had. I wanted to spend the night, but I didn’t want to do anything graphic until I actually met the person
Hansen: Well, what do you think should happen to you here?
Thornton: Just go home and learn from this.

But he’s not going to get off that easy. It’s time to tell him who I am.

Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen from Dateline NBC...

He doesn’t run when he sees the cameras—instead he decides to give any potential predator this advice...

Thornton: Just whatever you do, do not get into underaged people at all. And I feel regretful. I feel horrible that I did this.

But that heartfelt speech, those words of wisdom, won’t help him this time around.

Like all the other men you’ve seen, he’s patted down, photographed, and his car is searched and off he goes to jail.

The man who thanked me
Most of the men who came to our undercover house were chatting online with decoys for a week or more, but not this potential predator: He’s 48-year-old Donald Morrison, screenname donni1957_male. He started the online chat with a girl posing as a 15-year-old at 8 p.m. and wasting no time, he proposes to meet on the same night. He types “I want to meet you and fool around. Are you up to meeting tonight hun.?”

Then he makes a plan to come to her house around 11 p.m. At 11:30 p.m., Morrison walks up our driveway.

Actress: Hey come on in.
Donald Morrison: Hello.
Actress: Hey I just made some cookies. Just take a seat. I’ll be right there.
Morrison: You got a big house.
Actress: Yeah, it’s great. Try one of my cookies. They’re so good.
Morrison: Chocolate chips, my favorite.
Actress: Mine, too.
Morrison: Well, I make ‘em for Christmas. I make about ten dozen of ‘em.
Actress: Whoa. Why so many?
Morrison: Cause I usually have family in from up north. We had like 14 of us here this year.
Actress: Holy cow.
Hansen: Can I get you a glass of milk to go along with those cookies?
Morrison: Sure.
Hansen (walks in): What’s going on?
Morrison: I don’t know. I just was talking to ‘er, and she said come down and visit ‘er.

Just like our other visitor, he admits he has a problem when it comes to underage girls.

Morrison: I have a compulsion just to be with the younger women. Just meeting them I had met about a dozen of ‘em online.
Hansen: And so this is something you do frequently?
Morrison: Now, I haven’t done it in—let’s see, I haven’t done it since I moved here to Florida.
Hansen: And where did you live before?
Morrison: Texas.
Hansen:    Texas.   And so you did this a lot in Texas.
Morrison: Uh-huh (affirm).
Hansen: Did you ever get in trouble for it?
Morrison:     Yeah.
Hansen: Yeah?
Morrison: Well, I got in trouble cause I met a girl in Michigan.
Hansen:    You met a girl in Michigan.
Morrison: Uh-huh (affirm).
Hansen:    And how old was that girl?
Morrison: 17.
Hansen: 17?
Morrison: 17.
Hansen: Yeah. And what trouble did you get in there?
Morrison: Well, her grandfather tried to... something. They couldn’t do anything. So they arrested me for trying to for possession child pornography ‘cause I had nude pictures of her on my computer. They ended up dropping the charges.
Hansen:    So you were charged but then they dropped the charges.
Morrison: Yes, sir.
Hansen: I see. And how did you get the naked pictures of the teenage girl?
Morrison: I met her in Michigan. And I took them.
Hansen: You took the pictures of the girl.
Morrison: Uh-huh (Affirm).
Hansen:    And then you put ‘em on my computer.
Morrison: On my computer. Yeah, they were digital pictures.

After the 48-year-old asks the decoy on line if she is looking for sex. He brings up the possibility that she might be a cop.

Hansen: What made you think that this might be a police operation?
Morrison: Oh, just after seeing all these things on Dateline. You know I know, like I say, this is the first time I’ve done this since I’ve been here.
Hansen:    So you’ve seen all the Dateline stories.
Morrison: Uh-huh .
Hansen:    And what do you think of those stories?
Morrison: I thought some of them were pretty bad. I mean I saw the one where they were coming over for sex with boys and stuff like that. You know. And I’m not really into you pedophilia or this might be—this is probably considered that. And I know this is probably gonna be on Dateline too, so go ahead and put it on.
Hansen:    Well, you know who I am.
Morrison: Yeah.
Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.
Morrison: Right. And I understand, I know… I recognize from the voice.
Hansen:    And everything you’ve just said and done has all been recorded.
Morrison: Okay.
Hansen:    And if you have anything else you’d like to tell us, we’d like to hear it.
Morrison: Just saying that you know I shouldn’t have done it. I mean this is something I normally don’t go out and do.
Hansen: I want you to be honest with me; if I wasn’t here tonight, and a young girl was, who was alone and willing to have sex, what do you think would have happened?
Morrison: Probably it would have happened.
Hansen:    Probably would have had sex. You would have done ahead and done it.
Morrison: Probably, yes. I mean I could say honestly yes, it probably would have if she would—if she would have said “Hey, let’s go for it.”
Hansen:    And you don’t see anything wrong with that.
Morrison: Yes, I do see things wrong with it, but I had lack of judgment.

And here’s a first. Before he leaves he actually thanks me.

Morrison: Thanks for kicking me in the pants and setting me straight, Chris. Am I going to get arrested?
Hansen: That’s not up to me.
Morrison: Ok.

He leaves through the back door and the police are waiting.

He’s taken to the transfer station. When he gets to the jail, he goes into diabetic shock and is taken in handcuffs to the hospital where he is treated and then brought back to jail. The next day he appears before a judge.

CONTINUED : Cool whip and a cat?

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