To Catch a Predator - Greenville, Ohio

Greenville, Ohio was the fourth investigation conducted on To Catch a Predator.


Is this a crime that only happens in and around big cities? Or does it happen everywhere? Seventeen men are arrested over a three day period as Dateline goes to the Heartland.

From
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The premise behind the fourth Dateline investigation was to see if the problem of internet predators was as big a problem in small towns as it was in big cities, so Dateline set up operations in Greenville, a town with a population of 13,000. It is unknown whether the point was made because dates were made with men in the area, or if it wasn't because information had gotten out that Dateline was in town and the locals all dropped out. Because of this, the men caught in the sting drove long distances to keep a date for underage sex.

In order for the most serious charges to be filed against the men, the chats had to be conducted by law enforcement. To that end, the Darke County Sheriff's Department temporarily deputized the Perverted Justice members. Seventeen men were arrested over a three day period between March 24th and 26th, 2006.

Notes & Trivia
Two Flagler Beach suspected predators David Wagner and Stephen Holt were almost caught in this sting.
During filming, a neighborhood couple, noticing a great deal of activity around a place they believed to be empty, actually came to the door of the sting house, where they were met by Chris Hansen. Once he introduced himself, the pair instantly put two and two together and went on their way.


To Catch a Predator is a popular American reality television series, which featured on NBC. The show was hosted by Chris Hansen and was partly filmed with hidden investigative camera’s. The series aimed to catch the sexual predators, who would arrive at a sting house to have intercourse with a minor. Most episodes would typically end in an arrest. The minors were actually adults who were merely impersonating underage persons.

The series debuted in November 2004.12 investigations were featured in total and they took place all across the United States. However, the series came to a shocking halt in 2008.
On several occasions To Catch a Predator, makers had been accused of creating the news, rather than reporting news. Several media portals at the time had claimed that the show was blurring the line between being a news organisation and an agency of law enforcement. However, To Catch a Predator was finally cancelled in 2008.

The show had been accused of Entrapment for years, which is a practice where a law enforcement official provokes a person to commit a crime, which they would have otherwise been unlikely to commit. However, an incident that took place in 2008, that became the catalyst leading to the show’s end.
In 2008, Louis Conradt who was an assistant district attorney in Rockwall County, Texas, had shot himself after he was caught talking as well as exchanging pictures with a volunteer who had posed as a 13-year-old boy. Louis Conradt shot himself when NBC and local police barged into Conradt’s home with the camera crew. NBC and the Local Police brought the camera crew into Conradt’s home as he hadn’t shown up for a pre-scheduled meeting.
The 60-year-old American Television Journalist Chris Hansen was the host of To Catch a Predator. Chris Hansen also hosts Killer Instinct on Investigation Discovery, a show which revolves around and documents homicide investigations. Chris Hansen is currently running a YouTube show named Have A Seat With Chris Hansen these days.