What happened to potential predators?

No matter where we went we heard the same old story...

Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent (hidden camera footage): What are you doing here?

Kurt Lemke: Just hanging out.

Hansen: Hanging out?

...men planning to meet someone who said they were an underage teen, trying to explain away their behavior.

It was the same in New York, Virginia, California and Ohio.

Alonzo Wade: I don’t know why I did it. I just wanted to party, that’s all.

So when we began our next investigation, this time in Fort Myers, Florida, we were ready for more excuses.

Hansen: What’s up?

Thomas Coffen:  I’m looking for work and stuff.

He’s just one of the two dozen potential predators who came to our home in Florida.

Ryan McIntosh: I was just coming over here to hang out.  And, I felt like I would be more a big brother more than anything.  I do know—

Hansen: Big, Brother? So, you were coming over to be a mentor?

McIntosh:  In a way, yes. And, I’m sure you’ve heard that twenty billion times.

Hansen: Twenty billion and one counting tonight.

While we’ve met some memorable people throughout our investigation, some of the men in Florida are without question unforgettable.

Hansen: We’re doing a story on adults—

David Schumacher: You do look kind of familiar—

Hansen: —who try to meet kids on the Internet.

Schumacher: All right. Hey man, I don’t want to be on the news, you filming me?

Hansen: We are filming.

Schumacher: I don’t want to be on the news, dawg.

Hansen: Well, it’s a little late for that, dawg.  Now if there’s anything else you want to tell me—

He quickly comes up with a disguise, it and as far as interviews go, this may be a television first. He puts his head under his T-shirt and puts a cap on.

Schumacher: All I got to say is there ain’t not going on here dude.  Nothing funny going on here.

But the transcripts of his online chats and phone calls were enough for police to charge him with a felony.

And this was not his only encounter with the law.  He has a long rap sheet. In 2002, he led police on a high speed chase in a stolen car.  He was also convicted of grand theft and trying to sell stolen goods.

And twice he was convicted of battery—the most recent case in January.

Decoy:  Hey come on in! What kind of alcohol did you bring?

Thornton:  Um, I brought absolute Citron. I brought mandarin orange. I brought a shot of jagermeister.

Decoy: Wow.

In several cases, the men were asked to bring food, alcohol and condoms.  Law enforcement says this helps show intent to solicit a minor.

Hansen: What have we got here?

Elias Bailon: A rose.

Hansen: What about condoms?  Did you bring condoms?

Bailon: Yes, sir.

Hansen: You did? Why don’t you put those on the table?

Bailon: Oh no, I thought I’d carry them with-- (NOISE) thank you.

And as you’ll see, some seem prepared to do things that Fort Myers, Florida Police Chief Hilton Daniels finds quite alarming. 

Chief Hilton Daniels: The one that bothered me the most was the guy that showed up with rope and duct tape in his vehicle.

Hansen: Did you bring rope with you tonight?

Kenneth Forton: I have rope in my car, yes, for my job.

Hansen: You talk about using the rope in various sex acts with this 15-year-old girl.

When he leaves the house, he’s arrested. But possibly, the most disturbing man we met was this one:

He’s a 40 year-old married man, Clifford Wallach, screenname Fotophix.  He’s here to meet a boy who told him online he was 14.

Del, from Perverted-Justice posing as the boy spoke with Fotophix on the phone.

Del:  He said “I like oral, all aspects. I said giving or receiving? He said both. I said cool.  He said you up for that? I said sure.”

Holding his son’s hand, the 40-year-old walks into the house.

Because we don’t want to scare the little boy, we immediately tell the man what’s going on.

Hansen: I gotta tell you something.  And I’m gonna tell you this straight up right now.

Clifford Wallach: What?

Hansen: I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC.

Wallach: OK.

Hansen: We’re doing a story on adults meeting children—

Wallach:   I was just coming to take someone out to lunch.

Hansen:  My point is, because your child is here, I think it would be best if you went ahead and left.

Wallach: Yeah—I agree.  I’m never gonna do this again.

Since the police know the man has his son with him they approach him carefully. A female officer quickly takes the little boy and whisks him away so he doesn’t have to further witness his father’s arrest. The man is taken away in hand cuffs and brought to a transfer station.

The police contact the boy’s mother at work, tell her what’s going on and she comes and gets him.

Meanwhile, the dad is jailed, charged with attempted lewd and lascivious battery and another charge of child abuse.  He has pleaded not guilty.  He’s now awaiting trial.  His 5-year-old son is back home with his mother.  The Florida department of children and families is conducting an investigation into the little boy’s welfare.

While this story is upsetting, the story of this next man who online calls himself “crazitrini85” is downright bizarre.

In his chat, he wants to watch our decoy, who said she was 14, perform a sex act on a cat.  They discuss it further on the phone and the decoy tells him she’ll try it if he’s willing to strip off all his clothes and walk into her house naked.  Remember, police tell us if an individual goes along with something like that it helps prove intent.

Marvin Lakhan:  Where are you?

Decoy:  Wait, just take a seat. Have a cookie, I made them because they’ll go with the cool-whip. It was kind of a little surprise.

Hansen:  You wanna explain yourself, grab that towel right there please.  Wrap it around yourself.  And please sit in that stool. What are you doing?

Lakhan:  Making a mistake.

Hansen:  Making a mistake? I mean I can only imagine what would’ve been going on in this house had I not been here.  Am I wrong to think that?

Lakhan: No.  You’re not.

Hansen: So what’s going to be happening if I’m not here? You’re naked.  There’s a 14-year-old girl.  You’re chasing a cat around.  You’ve got Cool Whip and you want this girl to do some sex act with the cat and then you’ll have sex with her.  Is that accurate?

Lakhan: Yes.

After he gets himself dressed, he’s arrested and sent to jail.  He’s charged with attempted lewd and lascivious battery, using the computer to solicit sex with a minor, and transmitting material harmful to a minor. 

The next day he’s brought before a judge and bail is set. Bail came to $50,000. This week, he pleaded not guilty like all the other Florida men who entered pleas so far.

MORE FROM DATELINE

Dateline Section Front

NBC's People of the Year: Read the interviews The Night Mary Jane Disappeared The Friday the 13th Mystery Mystery at Lost Dog Road Slideshow: Photos in the Bob Duke case When The Smoke Clears   Sneak peek: When The Smoke Clears Slideshow: The Christie Fleming murder Transcript: Dan Brown and Secrets Of The Lost Symbol Through The Pouring Rain Dateline Section Front   Add Dateline headlines to your news reader: