Shasta County Sheriff’s Detectives say they have caught a potential child predator after sending out bait on the Internet. An undercover decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl reportedly caught the attention of 45-year-old Austin Wiliam Forrest of Redding. The two began chatting and Forrest soon allegedly began sending explicit messages trying to arrange a meeting for sex, even arranging for the object of his attention to travel by bus from Arcata to Redding two days ago. That’s the day a multi jurisdictional team of officers arrived at Forrest’s home to serve a search and arrest warrant. He was booked into jail, where he remains on $25,000 bail.
– Steve Gibson