Miss America acts as bait in NYPD sting
Miss America pretended to be a 14-year-old girl to catch online sex predators as part of an undercover operation with New York police last week.
Lauren Nelson, crowned Miss America in January, set up an internet profile using photographs of herself when she was a teenager.
The operation resulted in face-to-face meetings with four predators, all caught on film by hidden cameras and now facing the shame of having their arrests broadcast on the popular America’s Most Wanted TV show on Saturday.
Miss Nelson, 20, who has made internet safety for children the central theme of her year-long reign as Miss America, agreed to work with the Computer Crimes Unit of Suffolk County police, part of the New York force.
The former Miss Oklahoma posed as a young teenager and went into chatrooms, where she said that men would begin sending her instant messages asking her how old she was and where she lived.
“I would say I’m a 14-year-old female from Long Island. Sometimes they would say, ‘You’re too young, sorry’, which is exactly what needs to happen, but some would continue chatting. It would only take a matter of time before it got pretty explicit,” she said.
Miss Nelson then arranged to meet the men at a home in Long Island where police and camera crews were waiting.
“The story was that they knew I was 14, and I told them I was cutting school to meet with them,” she said. “I stood outside on the porch, and I would say ‘Hi’ to them and wave them inside.” Once she entered the home with the suspect, she left the room, and police and John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, confronted the men.
“That part was very scary, but the police were all over the place,” Miss Nelson said. “I was nervous, of course, but it was a very controlled environment, very safe.”
Of the four men who took the bait, one was a 52-year-old luxury car salesman and father of three; another was named as Gary Kerpen, a New York web designer nicknamed “the Phantom” by police who had tried unsuccessfully for more than two years to ensnare him. Six other men contacted Miss Nelson.
After several online “chats” last week, police say, Kerpen requested sexual favours. On April 19 he asked for a meeting, and for a phone call from the “14-year-old” girl.
Miss Nelson called, and a meeting was set for 5pm last Friday. Police say that Kerpen drove past the house twice before parking two blocks away. He then walked up the driveway and knocked on the door, where he was greeted by Miss Nelson, wearing a baseball cap, jeans and pink shirt.
“As many as we caught on that day, there are a lot more out there,” she said. “It’s nice to know that they were chatting with police officers and me rather than a 14 or 15-year-old girl.”
Art McMaster, president and CEO of the Miss America Organisation, said that initially he was hesitant about Miss Nelson participating in the sting, but agreed after speaking to her father and the producers of America’s Most Wanted.
“We came to the agreement that as long as she was safe and wanted to do this, we’d be behind her,” he said.
Source - Timesonline.co.uk
04-27-07, 03:29 AM
