Predator Sting: PA Man Expected Sex With Girl, 12, At NJ Hotel, Homeland Security Says

A Pennsylvania man who arranged what he thought was sex with a pre-teen in a New Jersey hotel was instead seized by federal agents when he showed up, authorities said Wednesday.

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents and task force officers of Homeland Security Investigations Newark with the arrest, assisted by the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and Mount Laurel police.
Photo Credit: *flickr.com/photos/us_icegov*

Jerry DeMarco

09/20/2023 3:00 p.m.

Louis Goldenberg, 41 of Philadelphia, "began interacting on a messaging application with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent, who was posing as a middle-aged woman with a 12-year-old niece" last month, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said on Sept. 20.

Goldenberg messaged the purported aunt, "continuously expressing interest in having sexual contact," the U.S. attorney said.

Eventually, he arranged a meeting for sex with the child on Monday and made a reservation for that same night at a hotel in Mount Laurel hotel, Sellinger said.

Goldenberg traveled the 20 or so miles to the South Jersey hotel and was immediately arrested by HSI agents on charges of using an Internet-based chat application to entice a minor to engage in prostitution, he said.

A federal magistrate judge in Camden released Goldenberg on $100,000 unsecured bond pending the outcome of the case.

Sellinger credited special agents and task force officers of HSI Newark with the investigation and thanked the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and Mount Laurel Police Department for their assistance.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Katelyn Waegener of his Camden office is handling the case, Sellinger said.

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