A 49 Cartersville man, Larry Dobbs, was arrested earlier in the week in Panama City, Florida on charges that he and two others solicited sex from teenagers.
Reports said that Dobbs used the app Grindr to start a conversation with what he thought was a boy. When told by the undercover officer playing the role of the boy that he was only 14 years old, Dobbs acknowledged his age and was ok with it. Reports said that he sent the officer an obscene picture and asked for one back in addition to telling him about his desire to have a sexual encounter with him.
Reports went on to say that Dobbs told the “boy” that he was in a truck near a store in Panama City Beach. Bay County Sheriff’s Office investigators immediately began to watch the truck. They watched as the truck left that location and parked in a dark area of the parking lot of the motel being used during the undercover operation. (Dobbs knew from communications that the 14-year-old child was staying at that undercover location.)
Contact was made with Dobbs who said he was in fact communicating with a subject on Grindr post Miranda. Dobbs said he believed the subject to be 16 years of age and said this type of communication and sexual activity was legal in the state of Georgia where he resides.
Dobbs also admitted he would have had a sexual encounter with the child if he had made contact with him to help the child satisfy his curiosity about homosexual acts. Dobbs is facing a charge of obscene communication by using a computer to seduce or lure a child.
This was part of an internet sex sting operation involving multiple agencies.
WJHG contributed to this report.
