New Lenox police investigate video of potential underage solicitation

New Lenox police are investigating after a YouTube video surfaced that appears to show a man meeting who he thought was an underage boy for a possible sexual liaison.

The encounter at a New Len ox W al mart was apparently arranged after the YouTuber had created a fake account on the popular gay dating app Grindr, where he posed as a 13year-old boy in what appears to have been an attempt at a sting operation to entrap the respondent.

Police are investigating although nobody is in custody and no charges have been filed, according to New Lenox Deputy Chief Louis Alessandrini.

The man who responded to the postwas affiliated with an area youth baseball organization but was removed from that position by the group’s board of directors after the organization was made aware of the video.

The official can be seen in the video wearing a jacket with lettering identifying the organization.

“We, like you all, share the same shock and concern. We are in a state of disbelief, given this individual’s close involvement in the little league community,” the organization said in a posting on its Facebook page.

The Daily Southtown is not naming the organization or the individual because he has not been charged with a crime.

Video of the meeting was taken by a thirdperson and shows the youth baseball official and the YouTuber initially meeting inside the store, then the encounter continues in the parking lot, in an exchange laced with profanity and in which the man contends he knew the dating app posting was a fake.

Police are looking into the video and what prompted the meeting out of concern that it suggested a possible solicitation of underage sex, Alessandrini said.

“What exactly the individual may ormay not have responded to is still under investigation,” he said.