Cops slowly figure out a certain Craigslist section!
A 31-year-old Hartland woman was arrested Aug. 13 at her residence on Highway 83 after she allegedly offered sexual favors in exchange for money to an undercover officer with the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
Hartland police were tipped off to the woman’s alleged prostitution after a detective with the Oconomowoc Police Department discovered an ad for the woman’s services on the Milwaukee branch of Craigslist, a popular local classified Web site, said Detective Adam Mueller with the Hartland Police Department. The ad allegedly offered hourly and half-hour rates for “peer pleasure” from a “real and serious” provider, Mueller said.
The Hartland woman has not been charged with a crime and the case is under review by Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Lesli Boese.
A sting operation to catch the woman was set up after Hartland officers were alerted to the Craigslist ad July 24 and recognized the woman – who included photos of herself and her phone number on the ad – from previous incidents at her residence, Mueller said. An officer with the sheriff’s department set up a time to meet with the woman at her home and when she agreed to give sex for money, the arrest was made, he said.
“When I asked the woman how many customers she’d had, she said, ‘Oh, I don’t know,’” Mueller said. “She said she’d been doing it for a couple of months to pay her mortgage.”
Police believe the woman’s alleged prostitution was an isolated incident and not part of a larger operation in the area, Mueller said. The woman allegedly offered and provided the services out of her home, which she shared with a female roommate and the roommate’s small child, he said.
“It sounds pretty dangerous,” Mueller said.
The woman told police she was recently remarried and her new husband does not know about her alleged prostitution, he said. Hartland police booked and questioned the woman at their department Aug. 13 following her arrest and she was released shortly thereafter, Mueller said.
The department recommended to the DA’s office that the woman be charged with prostitution, he said.