VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – A Virginia Beach man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for attempting to negotiate with who he thought was a 13-year-old girl’s mother in order to engage in sex acts with the child.

Former Chief Petty Officer Daniel Alan Puff of Virginia Beach was arrested in early 2022 after responding to a Craigslist ad for an underage sex worker. Fortunately, the ad was fictitious and the person he communicated with was an undercover agent.

On March 30, 2022, he pulled into a parking lot in the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake. Although he knew what he was doing might end with him in cuffs, his intention was something else.

“Puff arrived at the agreed-upon meeting location in Chesapeake and surveilled the area to check for the presence of law enforcement,” a release from the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia reads. “Puff then approved the [undercover agent], gave $60 to the [undercover agent], and stated the sex act he wished to engage in with the child.”

Puff was found guilty by a federal jury in January of attempted coercion, attempted sex trafficking of a minor, lying to a law enforcement officer and obstruction of justice.

Those last two charges came from what he did immediately after being put under arrest.

Puff managed to delete the app that he’d used to communicate with the undercover agent from his phone. When asked what he was doing, he initially told investigators he was texting a friend.

When the FBI accessed his phone and the information from that app and others, they uncovered numerous conversations with underage girls dating back to 2017.

In those communications, Puff had lied about his age as well his experience in the Navy twice, in attempts to sleep with two different 17-year-olds.

“During the conversation, the defendant pretended to be a 26-year-old Navy ‘nuke’ or someone who supports nuclear reactor operations on a nuclear-powered ship or submarine, although he was 33 years old at the time of the conversation and a review of his military record reveals he has not served as a Navy ‘nuke,’” the prosecution wrote in a court filing.

He also lied about his age in communications with other underage girls.

During interrogations, Puff confirmed to FBI investigators that he “routinely solicited prostitutes.” That may explain the caution he exhibited while communicating with the undercover agent.

“Are you affiliated with law enforcement?” he’d messaged the agent on the afternoon of March 30, 2022. The question was ignored.

“This feels like a setup,” he worried (correctly) to the agent in a subsequent text, moments before meeting in person.

“It’s not,” the agent replied. “Are u here? I can come talk to u.”

“You mean arrest me,” he answered.

“Im not a police im worried about that to,” the agent texted. “I’m not a cop at all.”

“Me either,” was the last text Puff would send as a free man.