Thomas Soetaert

At the time of the sting, Thomas lived in Skandia, Michigan. Shortly before the sting, he was the apparent victim of a romance scam, in which he lost much of his savings. He was a delivery truck driver. He also went by the aliases of Jerome J Soetaert and Cliff Cliff.

Thomas arrived at the sting house, "sex bag" in hand. The decoy asked him what was in the bag and Thomas responded, ominously, "oh, just something I never told you about that I like to do." It turned out to massage oil that he asked the decoy to smell. Thomas immediately admitted to Chris Hansen that he intended to have sex with the girl. He also admitted to knowing the decoy's age to be fifteen. Thomas blamed a recent relationship he had - where he was "led on" by a woman for over a month - for why it was appropriate for him to meet a minor for sex, in what Chris described as a "sob story." Thomas described this story of a woman who promised to move to be with him, but kept running into hurdles that required him to give her money. In total, Thomas gave thousands of dollars to this mysterious other woman, but the relationship never materialized in-person. It appeared that Thomas was still unaware that he was the victim of a romance scam. Thomas pulled things of his sex bag in order to get a water bottle, but the uncertainty of what could be in there caused the police to come out and arrest him.

Accosting a Child for Immoral Purposes Child Sexually Abusive Activity Using a Computer to Commit a Crime (x2)

He was released on a personal recognizance bond. As part of a plea agreement, Thomas pled no contest to Child Sexually Abusive Activity in exchange for the other charges being dropped. He was given no additional jail time, but was required to register as a sex offender in Michigan.

The sting house had a picture of the " Soup Nazi " from " Seinfeld " on the wall. There was a statue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Donatello on one of the tables of the sting house.