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Rick Crawford Convicted of Attempted Enticement of a Minor

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Former Camping World Truck Series racer and team general manager Rick Crawford is likely to spend the majority of the rest of his life in prison.  On Thursday (Aug. 30), Crawford was found guilty by a federal jury of attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.  The charges carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison, but can be extended all the way to life.

The charges stemmed from a series of text messages that Crawford exchanged with who he thought was a man offering up his underage daughter for sexual activity in exchange for a “donation,” code for payment.  In reality, the “father” was an undercover agent working as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initative designed to combative child sexual exploitation and abuse.

After a couple of weeks of messages, Crawford agreed to meet the man he had been talking to in order to have relations with his daughter.  The rendezvous point was the parking lot of a Wendy’s on Lake Mary Boulevard in Lake Mary, Fla. near Interstate 4.

According to the state’s case, Crawford, 60, arrived to the Wendy’s parking lot in his truck on Feb. 28 and indicated that he wanted to go forward with the plan.  He was then arrested on the spot.

Ar the time, Crawford asserted that he had no intention of actually going through with the encounter.  He claimed that he showed up to see if it was real.

According to information released by the United States Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Florida, that does not appear to have been the case.  A search of Crawford’s truck and his person turned up $80 in cash to pay for the transaction, usexual implements, a male enhancement pill, massage oils, a portable DVD player and adult films.  The search findings cast serious doubt on Crawford’s claims.

Crawford is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26.

About the author

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.

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Tony

Read the interview transcript. His comments about not reporting it if it had been legit are worth a year’s contempt time anyway.

Tom B

These situations would never happen if it wasn’t for a made up bait and switch. Maybe we should probe the minds of citizens to see who has evil thoughts in their head and arrest them too!

Wouldn’t it be more efficient to sting the handful of minors who troll the internet trying to scam adults with sex than to make up a deal to catch someone who had no thoughts about committing a crime until he/she was offered the opportunity? Nipping the actual source of the problem.

People are weak and stupid, why do we help them prove it?

Is FRONSTRETCH going to report the BZF trial?

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