Another sex sting

By this time I really shouldn’t be surprised. I can’t help it. I still am.

It’s happened again. Readers of the print edition today will be greeted by Evan Weidmann, a 23-year-old New Jersey man who is the latest to be corralled by the Delaware County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

You can read the story here.

It’s particularly gruesome. Undercover county detectives say Weidmann drove to Delco expecting to have a tryst with a mother an her two young daughters, 11 and 8.

Instead, he drove right into the arms of county law enforcement officials when he drove into the parking lot of a fast-food joint just off I-95 in Lower Chichester.

Recently I had a visit here in the office from Dave Peifer. He’s a county detective.

We had the opportunity to talk about what I am increasingly considering “the Wild, Wild West.” That is the cyber-world of online folks out there. And I mean “out there.”

I quizzed Peifer about one of the many things I don’t get about these people who get stung in these undercover operations. I asked him when exactly these people are going to catch on to the fact that you really have no idea who the person at the other end of these chat lines really is. Sure, it might be a mom offering up her young daughters for your sexual desires. Then again, it just might be an undercover detective.
It’s a roll of the dice.

Then I told Peifer my real fear about these stories. I’m wondering if the fact that we keep seeing these successful stings means that there is a ton of this kind of behavior that is not being caught.

He simply shook his head and sadly concurred.

Scary stuff.

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