NEW WATERFORD Man nabbed in Internet chat sting

The man drove five hours to meet a 15-year-old girl and was met instead by police.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
EAST PALESTINE -- An Indiana man will be arraigned Tuesday in Columbiana County Municipal Court after a second successful Internet sting operation by New Waterford police.
Chief Dan Haueter said he and a female East Palestine officer used an Internet chat room, computer messaging, and telephone calls to set up a meeting in New Waterford with Michael Resann, 45, a computer installer from Goshen, Ind.
Haueter said he had been corresponding with Resann for several weeks; Haueter and the East Palestine officer were posing as a 15-year-old girl. He said they "worked the case hard" the past week to set up Saturday's meeting.
Haueter said to set up the meeting, Resann gave a calling-card number over the Internet and times to call him, then talked to the female officer. Resann then drove nearly 300 miles in about 5 hours for what he thought would be a sexual encounter with a 15-year-old girl. He pulled his company van onto a dead-end New Waterford street and was met instead by police.
Haueter said Resann brought a teddy bear police had asked for, and also a video camera, a Valentine card, a necklace and a bottle of body lotion.
Internet correspondence
"This guy said he was coming to Cleveland on business and was setting up some dates ahead of time," Haueter said. "He said he'd made a date for Sunday with a 20-year-old Cleveland woman. He told us he was 45, and initially said he enjoyed talking to teens and young girls, and wanted a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. The more contact we had, the more possessive and demanding he became."
Haueter said the man talked of a long-term relationship and said he would later help the 15-year-old girl he thought he was talking to further a career as an exotic dancer.
"These guys are lurking everywhere, and you can get into a chat room and in about 15 seconds you are bombarded with messages like 'Hi, you cute pet' and 'How naughty do you like it?'" Haueter said. "These guys just have some need to do this they have to satisfy. They do it knowing they could be talking to police, and they don't care."