{"id":83699,"date":"2026-10-07T18:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=83699"},"modified":"2026-10-07T18:05:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T22:05:27","slug":"florida-man-arrested-backstage-at-disney-world-in-undercover-child-predator-sting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/10\/07\/florida-man-arrested-backstage-at-disney-world-in-undercover-child-predator-sting\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Man Arrested Backstage at Disney World in Undercover Child Predator Sting"},"content":{"rendered":"
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37-year-old Michael Byrne<\/strong> of Lakeland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On October 7, 2026, 37-year-old Michael Byrne<\/strong> of Lakeland, Florida, was arrested in an undercover child predator sting conducted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Details of the Case<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Investigation:<\/strong> According to an arrest affidavit, an undercover deputy operating a Snapchat account (identified as “madmax17245”) made contact with Byrne in August 2026. When Byrne identified himself as a 37-year-old male, the undercover deputy stated he was a 13-year-old boy in Orlando. Byrne allegedly sent sexually explicit images and videos to the undercover account and requested photos in return.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • The Arrest:<\/strong> Investigators tracked the account to Byrne and taken into custody at 751 Backstage Lane, a backstage area near EPCOT at Walt Disney World. Disney officials confirmed that Byrne was not<\/strong> a Disney employee, and it remains unclear how he gained access to the restricted backstage location.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Statements to Police:<\/strong> Upon questioning, Byrne acknowledged owning the Snapchat account but claimed he was unaware he was messaging a 13-year-old.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Criminal Charges:<\/strong> Byrne was booked into the Orange County Jail and held without bond. He faces multiple felony charges, including:\n
      \n
    1. Solicitation of a minor via computer<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Transmission of material harmful to minors<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Unlawful use of a two-way communication device<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      He is being held without bond in the Orange County Jail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      On October 7, 2026, 37-year-old Michael Byrne of Lakeland, Florida, was arrested in an undercover child predator sting conducted by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Key Details of the Case… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtNi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiTGFrZWxhbmQgTWFuIEFycmVzdGVkIEJhY2tzdGFnZSBhdCBEaXNuZXkgV29ybGQgaW4gVW5kZXJjb3ZlciBDaGlsZCBQcmVkYXRvciBTdGluZyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.YHBBb-yrZpRo_Ce35IlCEIAHb-KIV6_zqgMMiSBYrVwMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzEwXC9TY3JlZW5zaG90LTEtNi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiRmxvcmlkYSBNYW4gQXJyZXN0ZWQgQmFja3N0YWdlIGF0IERpc25leSBXb3JsZCBpbiBVbmRlcmNvdmVyIENoaWxkIFByZWRhdG9yIFN0aW5nIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.1zXRztFB80xUyVR5yGrmPGs7YMLfZyKW6h7YNGxp3aUMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[237,17881,17877,17222,17878,17879,17882,17880],"class_list":["post-83699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland","tag-child-predator-arrest","tag-disney-world","tag-florida-man","tag-michael-byrne","tag-orange-county-sheriffs-office","tag-solicitation-of-a-minor","tag-undercover-sting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83699"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83703,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83699\/revisions\/83703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}