A registered sex offender caught on video allegedly trying to meet a young girl is now jailed on a luring charge.
Scott Hart, 53, is now charged with attempting to lure/entice a child after an investigation into the video that shows him on the Atlantic City Boardwalk last month, acknowledging he was there to meet a 15-year-old girl.
But instead of meeting "Jalyn," the Venice Park man met Justin Perry, who appears online as Mr. 17540.
For about a year and a half, Perry has been running his own form of “To Catch a Predator.”
He drove 2 hours and 45 minutes to meet Hart who “said some pretty graphic things to the girl he thought was a teen, Perry said.
It turned out that Hart is a registered Tier 2 sex offender, after a conviction in the sexual assault of a boy and girl in 1989.
He later pleaded guilty to endangering abuse/neglect/sexual acts to a child. Hart was sentenced to five years’ probation in 1991.
Perry posted the video to his Facebook page.
Then, last week, Perry said Atlantic City police had called him to come in and talk to them because they were investigating the case.
“They just reach out to me and want to charge the guy,” he told BreakingAC.
Hart was arrested this week, and is currently in the Atlantic County Justice Facility, records show.
A detention hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
There are currently 168 Atlantic City residents registered as Megan's Law sex offenders.
