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Two Arrested Following Vigilante Sex Sting

If you want to be a vice cop, cool. Apply to be an officer, go through training, work the streets for a few years, and try to get a transfer to the Vice Unit. But please,oh please, do not take it upon yourself to go out and buy a pair of handcuffs, rent a hotel room, and set up your very own sex sting.

Officers arrested two men at Hotel Five in downtown Seattle Monday after one of the men posted a fake sex ad on a website (which rhymes with Greg’s list) and then robbed the other man, who responded to the ad.

When officers arrived at the hotel around 1 pm, a 19-year-old man greeted them and said he was robbed after he went to the hotel to “buy some video games” from another man.

The 19-year-old man met up with a 28-year-old man at the hotel, and the pair went up to a room together. There, the 28-year-old man told the 19-year-old he was a federal agent, ordered him to lay on the ground, and then handcuffed him.

The 28-year-old–who is definitely not a federal agent—let the 19-year-old man go after he forked over $191 and a pair of sunglasses.

When officers contacted the 28-year-old man at the hotel, they were still under the impression this was a straight-up video game-related robbery. At least until the 28-year-old man told police he had posted a fake online ad on Craigslist, offering up sex with an imaginary 14-year-old girl.

Officers then arrested the 28-year-old for extortion and unlawful imprisonment, and asked the 19-year-old if, in fact, he’d gone to the hotel for a rendezvous with a 14-year-old girl.

That’s when the 19-year-old changed his story and admitted he had gone to the hotel to meet a girl, although he claimed the imaginary girl in question was actually 18.

Officers arrested the 19-year-old man as well.

Detectives continue to investigate this bizarre case.