A weekend sting targeting on-line sexual predators in Wisconsin resulted in four arrests.
Sergeant Pat DeWall with the Appleton Police Department says it was the result of a major collaboration between city police and a private watchdog group called Perverted Justice. Volunteers from the group posed as underage girls in chat rooms, then tried to arrange meetings with older men.
DeWall says the department has worked with the group before on single cases, but this is the first time they coordinated a larger operation.
DeWall says the group ended up having sexual conversations with at least 72 people who claimed to be older men, who knew that the online personas of Perverted Justice workers were between the ages of 12 and 15.
At least four people showed up for what they thought would be a meeting with a girl, but were actually met and arrested by police. Of those arrested, three were from the Fox Cities and one was from Racine.
DeWall says police still plan to follow up with several other potential suspects, who sent inappropriate pictures to someone they believed was an underage girl.