{"id":252208,"date":"2026-04-30T08:17:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252208\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T08:17:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T08:17:40","slug":"santa-claus-among-19-arrested-in-central-florida-child-predator-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/252208\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Claus Among 19 arrested in Central Florida Child Predator Sting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">POLK COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 During a multi-day undercover operation by the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, nineteen suspects were arrested for allegedly attempting to meet minors for sexual encounters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The operation, called \u201cOperation Child Protector VIII,\u201d involved multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Auburndale Police Department, Davenport Police Department, Lake City Police Department, Orlando Police Department, and several sheriff\u2019s offices and state divisions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">According to officials, 19 suspects were arrested and collectively face 85 felony charges and 8 misdemeanors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Below is a list of those arrested, including their names and ages:<\/p>\n<p>Tyler Berrie, 33Trenton Berry, 51Noah Berumen, 33 (Orlando)Gheorghe Bradley, 39Alan Brown Jr., 21Joshua Sanchez Bullard, 35Hongkun Cheng, 24Clinton Dees, 38David Esquivel, 57Noah Geraci, 27Derek Heard, 34Thomas Hicks, 68Lonnie Hill Sr., 62Robert Johnson, 62Saulo Jurado-Rodriguez, 18Ahmed Morsi, 36Josue Negron, 27George Thomas Jr., 57Joshua Velez, 35<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd highlighted the unusual nature of the arrest of Thomas Hicks, a well-known for-hire Santa Claus, during a public statement, saying, \u201cSpeaking of believing, we even arrested Santa Claus during this undercover operation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">SEE THE ENTIRE PRESSER BELOW:<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\">The Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office said the investigation remains ongoing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/mobile-apps\">Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" title=\"https:\/\/www.wftv.com\/video\/\">click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wftvapps.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777537060_731_APP DOWNLOAD LOCAL_1541693885678.jpg_13622062_ver1.0.jpg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__StyledText-sc-tl066j-0 eJzHXc body-paragraph body-copyright\">\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLK COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 During a multi-day undercover operation by the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office, nineteen suspects were&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2652,110083,1191,22571,94267,28,30,29,90808,17792,14366,90809,2785,1975,634,12143,26231,44880,115,139,1873,12706,110081,2631,110082,1045,17816],"class_list":["post-252208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-central_florida","tag-chan_channel_nine","tag-christmas","tag-dave","tag-dave_jordan","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-grady_judd","tag-greg_warman","tag-hicks","tag-judd","tag-judge","tag-kissimmee","tag-local","tag-marion_county","tag-martha","tag-martha_segowski","tag-news","tag-orlando","tag-polk_county","tag-santa","tag-santa_claus","tag-sheriff","tag-tom_hicks","tag-video","tag-wftv-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}