Hawthorne: September 2009 Archives

Dateline's Too Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen was not on hand at the Hawthorne Police Department in March and April of 2007, but a camera crew from CourtTV was as members of the Souty Bay Internet Task Force staged their own sting to catch their own predators.

It was interesting to see un-edited footage of a local police department in action - complete with their very raw emotions.

Officer Sarah Lewis, who was not yet an officer on March 31, 2007, is seen in Detective Sean Galindo's office making a recorded phone call to the person they only knew as "Johnny" who used the screen name "wecan69." I'm not sure how old Lewis was, but she looked to be in her late teens or early 20s, but sounded like a younger teenager as she fake giggled her way through the conversation. Sun spoke sweetly to her, telling her she was "crazy" for sneaking out and seemingly trying to scope out how real she really was. Lewis was quick with her answers - such as why the phone kept cutting out (the recording device was making it do that). She quickly told him she has a habit of pulling the phone cord and she stretched it out and broke the phone, and her mom always yelled at her for that.

When the conversation was over, her dimpled smile quickly left and she turned serious again. With a shudder and a slight "ewww," they were on their way to a briefing to set up the meeting and stake-out.