Polk County Sting Bagged 17 Child Predators Including Three Disney Employees and Two Military Veterans
WINTER HAVEN, FLORIDA — Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd’s office spent six days in early August 2021 running an internet sting. Seventeen people thought they were driving to meet teenagers. They were driving to detectives. Among them: three Walt Disney World employees, two military veterans, a registered nurse, a poker pro, and a married man visiting from California. Officials said the 17 faced 49 felonies and two misdemeanors. FOX 13 Tampa Bay and NBC News named Disney on the air.
Judd’s press conferences are a brand. The mugshot sheet is the product. The AEGIS Alliance will print the occupations because they are the point. A custodian at a theme park built around children is not a random hit in a decoy-ad spreadsheet. Polk County has run this operation so many times that Disney employees showing up is a recurrence, not a shock. In 2022 Judd’s office ran Operation March Sadness 2 and arrested more than 100, including more Disney staff.
Related: the earlier Disney World employee sting, Riverside Reclaim and Rebuild, the California child-sex sweep, and more Crime News.
