Here's how the Catawba County Sheriff's Office set up a sting operation to catch child predators

The Catawba County Sheriff’s Office spent months coordinating with about 20 agencies to plan an online operation to catch child predators online.

The sheriff's office arrested 10 men in the September operation.

“These people, we don't want them in our community at all,” Catawba County Sheriff’s Don Brown said. “And so first of all, for the ones that are here, that are doing these things, we want to charge them, put them in jail. And then the ones that are from outside this county, we want them to think twice before they actually say, ‘OK, I'm going to go to Catawba County and pursue this child and victimize these children in Catawba County.’”

Catawba County Sheriff’s Office Investigator Dane Hoyle led what the sheriff’s office called Operation Catawba Net. The sting lasted for three day