Sometimes authorities can toe the line leading into entrapment. And while it's more common for people to say investigators gave them the idea to commit a crime when it comes to things like selling drugs and prostitution, recently a 48-year-old who has been charged with a sex crime has come forward claiming that he was the victim of entrapment in an online solicitation for sex with a minor sting operation.

According to the 48-year-old, in the past he's met 10 to 15 adult women through websites, and thought that there was nothing weird when he answered an ad on Craigslist that was posted by who he thought was an adult woman who was "looking for a man to help in the family fun area."

While talking back and forth online, the woman supposedly told him that she had a daughter she wanted to teach about sex. The man said he took this to mean that she wanted to talk to her daughter about sex -- something that is normal for parents to talk to their age appropriate children about.

So, when the man went to go meet in person with the woman he thought he was talking to, he was probably pretty surprised when he was arrested for soliciting sex with a child over the computer.

It turns out that the 48-year-old was one of 23 men arrested as part of a joint investigation where authorities either pretended to be minors looking to engage in sexual activities, or answered ads where others were looking for sexual activities with young partners. However, the man claims that he is innocent, he was never looking to have sex with minors, and that police lured him into doing something he would not normally do.

A state attorney, while not commenting on this specific case, said that the predisposition to commit a crime is what stops a case from turning into entrapment. In some cases, going to specific websites can count as predisposition.

However, authorities are claiming that this recent sting was not entrapment. The arrest report includes excerpts where the man was supposedly saying how he was going to sexually engage with who he thought was the woman's 11-year-old daughter.

Looking back on the entire incident, the 48-year-old still contends he is innocent, and was just looking for someone to talk to.

"I thought she just wanted somebody to hang out with. I didn't realize what I was getting myself into," he said.

Source: Gainesville Sun, "Man arrested in child-sex sting says he was entrapped," Cindy Swirko, Feb. 16, 2012