Ocean County A local man was caught in a sting designed to catch on-line predators late last week. Michael C. Lubrano, 25, of Emerson Road in Hewitt was among 28 people caught in a collaborative effort between Perverted-Justice.com, Dateline NBC and the Ocean County Prosecutors office. Perverted Justice is an amateur, non-profit organization devoted to catching adults who use the Internet to meet and lure children into sexual situations. They have been working with “Dateline NBC” to set up sting operations in conjunction with local law enforcement agencies, which are then televised on the “Dateline NBC” series, “To Catch a Predator,” hosted by Chris Hansen. In the past four years Perverted Justice has been responsible for convicting 150 pedophiles and have another 300 cases pending in courts. According to news reports, Ocean County Prosecutor Thomas Kelaher said representatives from Perverted Justice approached the Computer Crime Unit in Ocean County with strong evidence. The crime unit then set up a sting operation in which adults posing as boys or girls ranging from 12 to 15 years old allowed themselves to be drawn into online sexual chatter with adults. Thirty-five of the adults were then invited to meet the “child” with whom they were communicating at a house in Mantoloking for the purposes sexual activity. Twenty-eight of them actually showed up at the house where they were met by adult decoys posing as young teens. Hansen from Dateline NBC quickly confronted them. The alleged predators were arrested as they left the house. Those caught in the operation ranged in age from 21 to 60 and included a pizza maker, a school bus driver, a court administrator and others. Lubrano is a dispatcher. One predator traveled from Washington State. NBC will air the program in July. Sources: The Ocean County Observer, AP, Asbury Park Press, phillyBurbs.com, NJ.com and APP.com