A second-grade teacher showed up to meet a child for inappropriate behavior.
But he was not the only one.
And Florida just arrested 58 of them – but what investigators found when these men walked through the door will make your blood run cold.
The Men Who Showed Up
Operation Bad Habits ran six days, June 1 through June 6.
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods led it.
Detectives posed online as children – some as young as seven years old.
Fifty-eight men made the drive.
They showed up with condoms.
They showed up with drugs.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2065109836740878649?s=20
They showed up with cash – some offering as little as $150 to buy a child for assault.
Several faced human trafficking charges on top of everything else.
Sheriff Woods didn't search for polite language when he laid out who they caught.
"We caught illegals, legals, immigrants, fathers, coaches, husbands, and even a student," Woods said. "Pure evil is what it is."
One of those coaches brought a child seat in his vehicle.
The Teacher With a Work Visa
Ashay Shakes, 31, told investigators he was a second-grade teacher at Fessenden Elementary School in Marion County.
He is in the United States on a work visa from Jamaica.
He had been teaching Marion County children since last August.
His contract was not renewed in February, and his last day in the classroom was May 29.
Five days later, he was driving to meet a child for inappropriate acts.
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/2065087021950087668?s=20
Another suspect, Wyatt Bernstein, was a Pop Warner football coach trying to meet a 15-year-old boy.
A man named John Goodman was trying to meet a 7-year-old.
One suspect drove down from Atlanta.
The youngest arrested was 16.
The oldest, 65-year-old Brian McVicker, faces charges of traveling to meet a minor and using a computer to solicit a child.
Florida Has Run This Play Before – And Keeps Finding the Same Evil
This was not a one-time operation.
Attorney General James Uthmeier has now arrested nearly 1,700 child predators since taking office.
The same Marion County Sheriff's Office ran a nearly identical operation in July 2025 – 48 arrests, 153 charges, six foreign nationals flagged with ICE detainers who had traveled from Jamaica, El Salvador, Dubai, and India specifically to prey on children.
Operation Bad Habits broke that record.
One of the men arrested in this month's sting had already been caught in a prior sting in Stuart in April.
He came back.
That detail doesn't get enough attention.
These men know the risk and they show up anyway – which means the only thing that stops them is a law enforcement agency aggressive enough to be waiting when they do.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received 1.4 million reports of online enticement in 2025 alone – more than 800 cases in which an offender actually traveled to meet a child in person.
Florida keeps running these operations because no one else will.
California won't.
Illinois won't.
Minnesota – the state that let $350 million get stolen from children's food programs – certainly won't.
Ashay Shakes entered the United States on a work visa.
He taught second graders for nine months.
Five days after his last day in the classroom, he was driving to meet a child.
The visa system let him in.
The school system employed him.
Florida law enforcement caught him.
That is the whole story of what works and what doesn't.
The investigation is not closed.
More arrests are coming.
Sources:
- Fox 35 Orlando, "58 arrested in Marion County 5-day child predator sex sting, sheriff says," Fox 35 Orlando, June 11, 2026.
- Click Orlando, "'Pure evil:' Marion County sheriff, state officials unveil details of record-breaking child predator sting," ClickOrlando.com, June 11, 2026.
- Sophia Fanning, "58 child predators arrested in 6-day sting operation: Florida Attorney General," WFLA, June 12, 2026.
- "Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces 48 Arrests, 153 Charges in Record-Breaking Undercover Child Predator Operation in Central Florida," MyFloridaLegal.com, July 30, 2025.
- National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "The Work Never Stops: A First Look at NCMEC's 2025 Data," NCMEC.org, March 2026.
