Hobart is a city of approximately 30,000 residents, located in the greater Chicago metropolitan area near Gary, Indiana. The Hobart Police Department conducted its first reverse sting in December 2011, after officers received tips and complaints of alleged prostitution activity in a home. After monitoring the home, police apprehended a man as he left, and he quickly admitted to paying for sex. Upon questioning, the woman in the home told police she had served in prostitution for several years. She agreed to serve as a decoy in a reverse sting and continued arranging appointments with sex buyers. Police then placed hidden cameras and audio recorders in the house. Five men, in addition to the initial man apprehended by police, were arrested when they appeared at the home and attempted to buy sex. All arrestees’ names and ages were released to local news outlets.

In April 2019, a Hobart man was arrested during a web-based reverse sting after traveling across state lines to sexually abuse a woman’s two underage daughters. He was charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex and resisting arrest, according to the Illinois State Police. He had been talking to someone he believed was a 38-year-old woman who was going to allow him to sexually abuse her two daughters, who were both said to be minors; the woman was actually an agent for Illinois State Police.