A married television anchor in Louisiana resigned after he was caught sexting with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl. According to the New York Post, the case came to light after 59-year-old Bill Lunn arranged a meetup with the suspected underage girl at his home during lunchtime on May 29. However, when he reached there, the teen girl turned out to be a trio of vigilante ''predator hunters'' who were conducting a paedophile sting operation.
The anchor called the police and claimed the men were there to beat him up and attempted to steal his car. However, the group waited and told the responding officers their side of the story, and provided evidence to back up their claims.
One of the men revealed that they had created a fake profile on the dating app Meet Me and had been posing as the teen for several weeks in a bid to ''catfish'' local men who were trying to meet underage girls for sex. The trio said Mr Lunn began engaging with the suspected teen on May 28, one night before he made arrangements to meet.
''They had a little conversation going on, and he asked how old she was. The girl told him she was 15 years old. He was like sending pictures to her. He was saying that he wanted to do this to her. Explicit things that I can't say on camera,'' Antonio Coleman, one of ''predator hunters'' told NBC 6.
When the trio told him he was exposed, the anchor allegedly tried to run away.
''As Bill was running off, he yelled, 'I have a wife and kids I'm sitting there as he's running off, like in my head, ‘How can you say that when you walked yourself in the house expecting to meet an underage teenager?'', Kataurio Grigsby, another member of the group said.
Notably, Mr Lunn started working at KTSB in 2019 and was promoted to news director last August, according to his LinkedIn profile. He served as the news director and top on-air personality at KTBS in Shreveport.
His attorney, Dhu Thompson, told The Post that his client denies the allegations.
''It is our preliminary understanding that this incident was not the result of a law enforcement investigation, but rather one done by private individuals. Our primary concern at this time is that law enforcement receives all evidence surrounding this incident so that they can make a thorough and complete review. Mr. Lunn has cooperated with authorities and vehemently denies any allegations of wrongdoing. We hope that after a thorough review of all the evidence surrounding this matter that Mr. Lunn will be shown to be innocent and cleared of all allegations,'' the attorney said in a statement.
Shortly after the allegations surfaced, the TV station launched an internal investigation, following which he resigned on Monday.
No charges have been filed about the incident as of Wednesday.
