From August 25 to August 27, Perverted-Justice and Dateline worked with law enforcement in Petaluma, California to arrest 29 men in three days. One suspect was later released due to lack of evidence. The resulting investigation aired on Dateline NBC on September 29 and October 6. The confrontations took place in the backyard, the first time they were taped outdoors. All of the previous interviews took place in a kitchen or living room.
Petaluma was the hometown of kidnap and murder victim Polly Klaas, and was also a former home of John Mark Karr, who made a false confession to the murder of JonBenét Ramsey. The last segment of the Petaluma investigation focused in part on the Mark Foley scandal, which broke just days before the investigation went to air. Several political cartoons published in the wake of the scandal explicitly referenced To Catch a Predator by name.
Given the proximity of the sting house to Silicon Valley, the investigation saw several computer engineers arrested, one of whom declared to the police that he was a well-respected man in society with a Ph.D. in computer engineering. Among the more notable arrests was that of a medical doctor who was the vice-president of a major cancer research corporation. Another claimed to be an active-duty Marine Corps sniper who, in his chat, said: "I carry a gun everywhere I go". The individual was actually a member of the Marine Corps infantry, and not a sniper. Police intervened immediately before any confrontation with Hansen and found a shotgun in the individual's truck.
This segment resulted in 26 convictions. In January 2010, Lt. Matthew Stapleton of the Petaluma Police Department credited the sting operation with scaring potential predators away from Petaluma. Referring to later decoy operations by local police, Stapleton said, "As soon as they found out that we were from the Petaluma area, they completely cut off communication with us."
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