Robert Baxter
Introduction
Robert Baxter is a 35-year-old Lakeland, Florida, man who, per the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, told an undercover detective he works at Tractor Supply in Haines City — and then asked to have that store serve as the meeting place. Where many entries in WKMG’s roster end with a drive to a house, his account turns on a proposal: bring the boy to him at work. A note for readers navigating this site: this is not David Baxter, the Essex teacher banned by a Teaching Regulation Agency panel who appears elsewhere on this site — a different person and a different case. The account here comes from the arrest roster WKMG obtained from the sheriff’s office.
Background Information
The roster entry is headed “BRING THE BOY THERE — Robert Baxter, 35, of Lakeland,” the label capturing the request that defines it. It sits inside the results of “Polk Around and Find Out II,” which the sheriff’s office announced on Friday, October 30, 2026, after seven days of undercover online work: 281 arrests in all, which Sheriff Grady Judd’s office billed as the biggest such operation in the county’s history. Detectives spent the week posing as children or as their guardians, and WKMG reported receiving the predator list, each suspect’s charges included, from the sheriff’s office.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Charged, not convicted. Baxter was arrested in the sting and faces three felony counts, all tied to the online solicitation the roster describes. The narrative below is the sheriff’s office’s account; nothing has been tested in court and he is presumed innocent.
Per the roster, Baxter sent online messages to an undercover detective posing as the guardian of a 13-year-old boy. At some point in the exchange, deputies write, he volunteered where he works: he told the UC that he works at Tractor Supply in Haines City. Then came the request that gives the entry its heading — WKMG records that he asked the UC to bring the boy there so he could have sex with the boy in the bathroom, quoted as the entry prints it.
The geography of that proposal shapes how his case reads next to the others. Most entries finish at an undercover house; Baxter’s finishes at a destination of his own choosing — a named retail workplace rather than a residence — and the sheriff’s office’s charge list reflects the difference. His printed counts stop at three: use of computer to solicit guardian, use of two-way communication device to commit a felony, and attempted lewd/lascivious battery on a minor. A traveling-to-meet count, stamped across so many other entries, appears nowhere on his. And as in every entry, the boy and his guardian were roles played by law enforcement; the account contains no actual child.
Public Reaction and Consequences
At the news conference, Judd called the week “the single largest undercover operation we’ve ever done” and described its purpose as going “out into the underworld and look for those who want to prey upon our folks.” The Post tallied the week by offense: 117 people charged with soliciting prostitution, among them an Orange County deputy; 122 arrested for committing prostitution; and 11 people identified as trafficking victims and offered services. Neither report quotes anyone about Baxter individually — his label does the talking, and the citation trail on his name runs only through WKMG’s roster.
Current Status
Baxter was taken into custody during the sweep on the three counts listed above. The cited reports add nothing about his path through the courts — no arraignment date, no plea, no hearings — and nothing had been adjudicated as of the October 30, 2026 announcements. He remains innocent under the law; what exists publicly is the sheriff’s office’s account of his messages and the request they say he made.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The job is the fixed point of his entry. He named Tractor Supply in Haines City to the detective himself, per the roster, and the store is also the location he proposed for the encounter — his employment is embedded in the allegations in a way few entries match. Neither cited report records any action by an employer since. Judd’s confirmation that every arrestee still working at Disney when arrested had been fired does not reach a farm-and-ranch retail job, and WKMG’s tally of 17 arrestees claiming theme-park or resort work, seven of them predator arrests, does not include a man whose stated employer is a retail chain in Haines City. The cited record closes at the charge list.