LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- We've been following this story since last year, when we first showed you what was going on. Now, one year later, we once again joined Metro Police in an undercover investigation.

We should emphasize that what you are about to see is not suited for young viewers, although it seems innocent enough. After all, we're talking about Louisville's parks, designed for our enjoyment and relaxation. But our undercover investigation shows some are using them for something else.

Last year, acting on complaints about lewd activities in the parks off River Road, we partnered with officers from the Criminal Intelligence Unit to strike back

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A grandfather, a city fire fighter and a mental health counselor were among those busted for masturbating in public. Certainly after such humiliation, they wouldn’t keep coming back -- but experts said think again.

“I think it’s very predictable. People return to where they found gratification… If it worked for them before, they’ll keep on doing it,” says criminologist Ron Holmes.

Sadly, he was right. Last week our hidden cameras found Richard Hibbs of Louisville satisfying himself in the presence of an undercover officer at Thurman Hutchins Park, a popular place for exercisers and moms with their children. Proclaiming he was enticed into it -- a claim that didn't stick long.

Then there’s Jerry Grimes, age 72, professing his innocence. “I know what they said I did, yeah,” he said. “Said I exposed myself.”

Did you?

“No, sir.”

But the our hidden tape shows otherwise. Grimes was parked next to a Porta Potty but he never got out of his car. Instead, our hidden camera showed him fondling himself.

We asked University of Louisville professor and criminologist Ron Holmes, who is also the county coroner, to help us make sense of why they're doing it, and why they seem to need someone watching them.

Are these people gay?

“No. Most of them are not gay. Most of them are heterosexual or define themselves as heterosexual who are having some type of gay sex,” Holmes says. “Gayness is not a completely 100 percent. Heterosexuality is not a completely 100 percent. So I think you can have some people who engage in some homosexual activity, who, because of the circumstances – circumstances might be here the wife is deceased, the wife is an invalid, the wife is not interested in sex, so you get sex from other places.”

Why do they do it alone? Why do they saddle up to our unmarked vehicle to have us watch them?

“I think it would be a mistake for us to think they don’t do it alone a lot. But sometimes you want to do other things. You want to heighten the experience and the experience here would be, uh, you know, doing it with someone else. But there’s another element here too, and I found this with a lot of people who are sex offenders: the greater the risk, the greater the thrill,” says Holmes.

It’s doubtful Dennis Cobb felt much exhilaration after police charged him with second-degree indecent exposure. Minutes earlier, he was innocently eating a sandwich at Bandman Park overlooking the Ohio River and spending an inordinate amount of time looking at our undercover cop, when he suddenly stopped munching on his sandwich and started fondling himself. Then he asked our undercover cop to join him in the woods – way, way in the woods.

“Did something occur out here in your vehicle?” an officer asked Cobb.

“No,” Cobb replied.

“The gentleman in the blue van was a reporter and the police detective… You ever been charged for this before, or anything like this?”

“No,” said Cobb. Turns out that’s not true: Cobb was arrested for the same crime back in 2003 in Thurman Hutchins Park, with his sentence banning him from returning there. Police say they will ask the court to ban him from Bandman Park, too.

Several of the men caught on tape were busted in a parking area of Thurman Hutchins Park, which is within eyesight of the Indian Hills Police Department.

Indian Hills Police Chief Kelly Spratt would not be interviewed on camera. Asked how these activities could be happening so close to his headquarters, he told us, “When we have received complaints from public about this, we’ve passed them on to LMPD, because the park is in its jurisdiction.”

Our two hours of undercover work – yes, just two hours, between 11 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon – is drawing to a close, with yet another incident. The 72-year-old man, caught satisfying himself in the presence of our undercover crew, not far from passing park goers.

Like many caught on tape, at first, he feigned innocence. “What did I do?”

“Come on now,” says Jim Sohan of Metro Police. “He’s a police officer. This guy here, he’s in the back of the van with a video camera. You want to ask me again what you did?”

Whatever you call it -- an addiction, a fetish -- those who do this need professional help. But until they want it -- until they get it -- police have sent a clear message that our parks are not the place for these activities.

Web story produced by Jay Ditzer.