Working with New York cops and blatantly stealing ideas from Dateline NBC, reigning Miss America Lauren Nelson pretended to be a 14-year-old girl online and totally caught herself some predators. The stunt was for Saturday’s episode of America’s Most Wanted. But if you can’t wait till then, here’s the inside scoop from Fox News:
Officers with Suffolk County’s computer crimes unit created an online profile of a 14-year-old girl that included photographs of Nelson as a teenager.“I got to chat online with the predators and made phone calls, too,” Nelson said by phone from Atlantic City, N.J. “The Suffolk County Police Department was there the whole time.”
You got to chat with predators? Um, good for you? I love how she’s perky even when it comes to chatting with pedophiles. But if Miss America was this excited, can you even imagine what was going through the predators’ minds? I mean Lauren posted pictures of HERSELF as a teenager. If you’re a predator–sitting in mom’s basement, typing with one hand–and you come across pictures of an underage beauty queen, and then she talks dirty to you? Oh my God, jackpot.
But Lauren’s crimefighting didn’t end at mere keyboard stroking. On to the rest of the story from Fox News:
Nelson then arranged to meet the men at a home in Long Island, where police and camera crews were waiting.“The story was that they knew I was 14, and I told them I was cutting school to meet with them,” Nelson said. “I stood outside on the porch, and I would say, ‘Hi’ to them and wave them inside.”
Once she entered the home with the suspect, Nelson said, she left the room, and police and “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh confronted the suspect.
“That part was very scary, but the police were all over the place,” Nelson said. “I was nervous, of course, but it was a very controlled environment, very safe.”
At this point you may be asking yourself, why would Lauren endanger herself in such a way? Well, because her Miss America platform issue is internet safety for children, and that’s just how dedicated she is. Plus, if anything had happened to her, Miss America runner up (that would be Miss Texas Shilah Phillips) would have been ready to assume the crown.
