Operation Child Protector VIII Nabs 19 Child Predators

0:00It's April 29th. This is Tampa Bay News today, driven by AI. Polk County Sheriff's Office just wrapped up Operation Trial Protector 8th, a big undercover sting targeting child predators. They nab 19 suspects over several days starting April 20th. 16 got hit with traveling to meet a minor for sex, and three faced human trafficking charges for trying to pay for it. This multi-agency effort pulled in detectives from various sheriff's offices, police departments, and even Florida's financial services investigators. The goal was clear, catch folks responding to fake ads about kids for sale online. One standout arrest was 68-year-old Thomas Allen Hicks, a marketing guy at Tri-County Human Services who dresses as Santa for local Christmas. Events. He bid on an ad from an undercover posing as offering up a fake 15-year-old daughter on a prostitution site. After his bust in a retail store parking lot, Hicks admitted to investigators he's married over 50 years, but still hunts

1:00prostitution sites for. Companions. He said the petite girl in the ad intrigued him, even if he suspected a setup, though he wasn't sure he'd go through with it if real. Officials including Sheriff Grady Judd, plan a press conference tomorrow at 2.30 p.m. to drop more details, keeping the pressure on these. Predators in the Bay Area.