BEL AIR, Md. — The Harford County Sheriff's Office recently partnered with renowned television journalist, Chris Hansen, in conducting a month's long undercover sting operation to catch child sex predators.
On Monday Sheriff Jeff Gahler posted a video message on Facebook, stating the investigation resulted in nine arrests.
Hansen, who is well known for hosting the television series "To Catch a Predator" now has a streaming program called 'Takedown,' which has the same sort of premise.
The show focuses on adults trying to chat online with someone they believe to be a minor, in hopes of meeting up to have sex.
Instead they're really chatting with an undercover agent, and when they finally do arrange a meeting, Hansen is there to question them before police move in for the take-down.
"When I was first approached about conducting this operation, it was my sincere hope that we would come up empty handed, that we would find there were no predators that wanted to terrorize our kids here in Harford County, and that the operation would end with zero arrests," said Gahler. "Sadly that was not the case at all."
Here is a list of those identified and charged, according to Gahler.
In the video, Gahler goes into some details about the allegations.
One of them, 72-year-old Charles Schmidt, of Rising Sun, thought he was meeting a 14-year-old girl.
"He stopped at a local store to buy condoms and alcohol to wash down his Viagra," said Gahler.
Then there's Nicholas Fountain, 38 of Pennsylvania, who Gahler says owns two daycare centers in the Collegeville area.
"[Fountain] came in contact with our undercover deputy on the website Reddit, on a forum titled Boys Ask Dads," Gahler said. "He wanted to meet as soon as possible because his wife was out-of-town."
Patrick Macaluso, a 36-year-old attorney from Suffolk, Virginia, was also caught planning to meet a teenage boy from Reddit.
"Our team of law enforcement decided to put an end to his plans early, and arrest him at his City office in Virginia," said Gahler. "When they arrived they found him on his government computer trolling for more underage victims."
Finally, Gahler mentioned 33-year-old Tyler Devault, of Gaithersburg, who allegedly lied and told investigators he was 19-years-old.
Coincidentally, he asked the supposed "14-year-old girl" he was talking to online that "he doesn't want to see Chris Hansen from the show 'Catch a Predator' there waiting for him."
Episodes featuring Harford County are scheduled to air this winter.
