A convicted sexual predator in Lehigh Acres was caught again—accused of preying on children. Thomas Harris was arrested during an undercover sting after a New Jersey detective posed as a mother of a 6-year-old child.
On March 25, the Lee County Sheriff’s Office was contacted by court officer with the County Prosecutor’s Office in Bergen County, New Jersey.
He explained to Lee County detectives that between November 2012 and January 2013, he had conducted an undercover chat investigation through a pornographic website.
The officer went on to explain he was posing as an adult female with a six-year-old daughter and started speaking to a man, who was identified as 33-year-old Thomas Harris.
The officer told Lee County deputies that during these conversations, Harris had identified himself as a sex offender and that he was interested in having sex with children.
On November 27, the undercover officer and Harris started conversing on Yahoo! Instant Messenger.
Excerpts from the conversations are in the Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrest report. But again, we’d like to warn you that they are quite graphic.
Harris’ most current FDLE registration with the sheriff’s office was on February 5, where he re-registered the address of 309 Paddock Street in Lehigh Acres.
According to Harris’ arrest report, he showed that he was aware of the obligation when he registered two email addresses on his sexual offender registration form in February and August of 2012.
As of May 28, the screen names he had been using during the undercover investigation had not been registered, the arrest report states.
Harris was arrested on the obscene communication charges and for failing to report an email address/instant message name.
Harris was booked into the Lee County Jail Monday.