ARRESTS IN SEX CHATS WITH ‘GIRLS’

Newsday/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher

Richard Himbele, a 31 year old Lindenhurst man, arrived at a Selden parking lot on March 13expecting to meet a 12 year old girl he had been having sexual chats with on the Internet. Threedays earlier, Mitchell Kaplan, a 51 year old man from Middle Village, took the Long Island Railroadfrom Queens to meet a 13 year old girl he planned to take back to his apartment to have sex.Instead, both men were greeted by Suffolk detectives with handcuffs. For about six weeks, both menbelieved they were communicating with young girls via Internet chat rooms when, in reality, theywere chatting up undercover detectives from the computer crimes unit.

(New York)