{"id":10709,"date":"2026-01-16T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=10709"},"modified":"2026-01-16T05:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T11:57:31","slug":"thief-river-falls-man-charged-in-sex-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/thief-river-falls-man-charged-in-sex-sting\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief River Falls Man Charged in Sex Sting"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Thief River Falls<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Thief River Falls man is facing a felony charge after a reported sex sting operation.<\/p>\n

Erick Sean Hartung of Thief River Falls has been charged with felony electronic solicitation of a minor.<\/p>\n

What court documents allege<\/h2>\n

According to court documents, an investigator posed as a 15-year-old girl online.<\/p>\n

The investigator used phone apps during the operation, the documents say.<\/p>\n

Hartung allegedly started talking with the account and sent sexual messages.<\/p>\n

Authorities say the messages were meant to lead to a meet-up.<\/p>\n

\"Erick
Erick Sean Hartung<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Arrest in Thief River Falls<\/h2>\n

Investigators say Hartung agreed to meet the teen in Thief River Falls.<\/p>\n

He was arrested when he arrived at the planned meeting location, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was literally going to report the person because they were going to get people in trouble.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hartung was booked and later charged in the case.<\/p>\n

Charging documents are allegations and must be proven in court.<\/p>\n

Law and public records<\/h2>\n

Minnesota law covers electronic solicitation of children under state statute.<\/p>\n

Readers can review the statute at the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes website.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Statute 609.352 (Revisor of Statutes)<\/a><\/p>\n

Public court entries may appear on Minnesota Court Records Online.<\/p>\n

Minnesota Court Records Online (MCRO) case search<\/a><\/p>\n

Online safety resources<\/h2>\n

If you suspect online enticement of a child, you can report tips to NCMEC.<\/p>\n

NCMEC CyberTipline<\/a><\/p>\n

Families can also find safety tools through NetSmartz.<\/p>\n

NetSmartz online safety resources<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Thief River Falls man is facing a felony charge after a reported sex sting operation. Erick Sean Hartung of Thief River Falls has been charged with felony electronic solicitation of a minor. What court documents allege According to court documents, an investigator posed as a 15-year-old girl online. The… Continue reading Thief River Falls Man Charged in Sex Sting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10710,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[770,6251,4026,772,9471,9470,827,1194,151,3229,9473,6250,824,794,9472,5691,825,778,9469],"class_list":["post-10709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-charged","tag-child-safety","tag-court-documents","tag-crime","tag-electronic-solicitation-of-a-minor","tag-erick-sean-hartung","tag-falls","tag-felony-charge","tag-man","tag-mcro-case-search","tag-minnesota-statute-609-352","tag-online-solicitation","tag-river","tag-sex","tag-sex-sting-operation","tag-sting","tag-thief","tag-thief-river-falls","tag-thief-river-falls-sex-sting-operation","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10709"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10711,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10709\/revisions\/10711"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}