A Wanatah man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of attempted child solicitation after Chesterton Police said that he sent sexually explicit text messages to a person whom he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

Robert Wayne Greenboam Jr., 23, was booked into the Porter County Jail on that charge around 9 p.m. Attempted child solicitation is a Class D felony punishable by a term of six months to three years.

According to the original case report filed by the CPD, at 6:45 a.m. Wednesday a 12-year-old Chesterton boy was getting ready for school when he received a text message on his cell phone from someone identifying himself as Bobby. The boy did not recognize the number and immediately alerted his father, who sent his own text in response identifying himself as “Ben.” Bobby then asked “Ben” whether he knew any “wild girls” and whether he was having sex with them, the report said. The father, still texting as “Ben,” replied with this message: “I’m 12.” He then sent a further message indicating that he had to go and would text again later.

Later on Wednesday, Det. Lt. Dave Cincoski stated in his probable cause affidavit, the father on his own initiative texted Bobby. “The initial text was simply a ‘hi’ and the conversation blossomed from there. (The father) stated that in the process of texting back and forth with ‘Bobby’, (he) portrayed himself as a 13-year-old girl named Brittany. He maintained that he did not instigate such a conversation or description and that he responded only upon prompting or questioning from Bobby.”

When Bobby subsequently sent a photo of himself “naked from the waist up,” initiated a conversation with “Brittany” which the father took to be about oral sex, and told “Brittany” that he wanted to meet her, the father “became concerned and decided to obtain police involvement,” Cincoski stated.

“Upon review of those texts and (the father’s) responses, it appeared to this investigator that there were no issues concerning illicit prompting from (the father),” Cincoski stated. “This investigator then decided to maintain a running dialogue with Bobby, continuing the identity of a 13-year-old.”

“The conversation did become sexually explicit upon Bobby’s prompting only,” Cincoski stated, “and on several instances he attempted to engage ‘Brittany’ in an exchange of suggestive conversation. However, ‘Brittany’s’ response was noncommittal and vague: ‘I don’t know’ or “I’m not sure.’”

At some point in the dialogue Bobby indicated that he was working in Valparaiso, would get off at 8 p.m., and asked “Brittany” if she would meet him. Cincoski, as “Brittany,” said that she would and that Bobby could come to her home after she put her younger sister to sleep. “Vague directions and residence descriptions were provided to Bobby as a meet location, as he indicated that he did not know Chesterton very well,” Cincoski stated. “It was determined that (the father) had already established that ‘Brittany’ was at home in a two-story apartment. A pre-determined location matching this description was then utilized as the meet location.”

When Bobby arrived at that location, he was met by a uniformed CPD officer and taken into custody, Cincoski stated. Bobby was then identified as Robert Wayne Greenboam Jr.

“Upon questioning, Mr. Greenboam confirmed that he thought the whole thing was a prank by his friends and that he was not going to do anything and he simply showed up out of interest,” Cincoski stated. “He further confirmed that he was aware that the person he was responding to was a 13-year-old girl and that he did initiate and send sexually explicit requests of the 13-year-old girl, and requested sexual intercourse with her. He advised that all the texts were perpetrated by him and no other person.”

Cincoski told the Chesterton Tribune today that Greenboam appears to have made original contact with the father’s 12-year-old son on a simple cold-call.