Special Agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have arrested and charged a Putnam County man accused of attempting to solicit a minor for the purpose of illicit sex.

On August 2nd, TBI Agents received information from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that a man, identified as Phillip Carlen Loftis (DOB 1-27-66) engaged in online conversation with an undercover GBI Agent, who was posing as a 13-year-old female. During the exchange, Loftis engaged in conversation of a sexual nature and exposed himself in transmitted photographs.

On Wednesday, authorities arrested Loftis and charged him with one count of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor by Electronic Means and one count of Solicitation of a Minor. Agents subsequently booked him into the Putnam County Jail, where, at the time of this release, he was being held on $7,500 bond.