OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla.,None — Forty people were arrested in an undercover child sex sting, including an announcer and player on the Champions PGA tour, according to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.
Investigators said the men believed they were going to Osceola County to have sex with a child.
The men arrested in the sting included Stephen Wesley Thomas, a pro golfer on the senior PGA tour. The sheriff's office said Thomas answered an online ad for "two for one girls on vacation."
But the mother and daughter he went to meet turned out to be sheriff's investigators, the sheriff's office said.
Most of the men arrested were from Central Florida, but not all of them.
The Osceola County Sheriff's Office released video taken inside the house where dozens of men believed they were going to meet an underage girl for sex.
The address of the bait house was not released.
"What is most concerning about this is that are so many people out there, but that some of these people work directly with children," said Twis Lizasuain of the Osceola County Sheriff's Office.
The men ranged in age from 18 years old to 70 years old, and include a Gainesville swim coach, who was recently relieved of his duties at the Gator Swim Club for Children, as well as a retired beekeeper and an eighth-grade teacher from Port St. Lucie, according to an arrest report.
The beekeeper, who has been married for 50 years, traveled from Georgia, deputies said.
Thomas grossed more than $250,000 on the PGA senior tour last year. Thomas and the rest of the men were arrested over the course of a week, investigators said.
Officers said they posed as either juveniles or the parents or guardians of juveniles in chat rooms.
During the chats, some of the men sent pornographic images to the undercover detectives, investigators said.
Authorities said the men then traveled to an undercover house to have sex with a child, where they were arrested.
"The success of this operation was the result of multiple local and state agencies working together in a cooperative effort. Florida Sheriff's and the Florida Sheriff's Association has taken a strong proactive enforcement position to combat these predators statewide. These predators stalk the cyber community looking for children to victimize. This operation resulted in 40 arrests which means at a minimum, 40 children did not fall prey to a sexual deviant," said Osceola County Sheriff Bob Hansell.
Some of the men brought alcohol, drugs and other items to the meeting, detectives said.
"This operation should also be a warning to all parents to monitor and be involved with their child's computer activities," said Hansell.
All of the men were arrested in Osceola County, deputies said. Many of those men have already bonded out of jail.
WFTV stopped by some of the suspect's homes after they bonded out of jail, but none of them would answer the door.
The mother of 22-year-old suspect Josean Gaston would only say her son is innocent.
"He didn't do anything, it wasn't like it looks like," she said.
Thrisha Gill lives in Winter Park with her two teenagers, and she just found out that two of the men arrested live within a mile of her.
"I had no idea at all that that was going on in this neighborhood," she said.
WFTV checked with neighboring Polk County, where officials said most of the suspects in their online sex stings take the standard plea offer of five-years in prison with five-years probation.
Now deputies are getting search warrants for the suspects' homes and contacting law enforcement officers from where they live to find out if there are any victims.
The suspects could have to register as sex offenders if they are convicted. There are 24,873 sex offenders registered in Florida currently. That is three times the number on the registry when it started in 1997. Approximately 414 of those are in Osceola County, 1,800 are in Orange County and 316 are in Seminole County.
The bust was a first-of-its-kind sting operation for Osceola County, deputies said.
WFTV
