On his way from Cape Canaveral to Volusia County to hook up for sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, Anthony Onesi's rental car ran out of gas.

His bad day would get worse. A lot worse.

Reports from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office tell that tale and a dozen more, part of an online sting operation in which investigators posed as teenagers during the operation that ran from Aug. 2-6.

The operation — which involved various local, state and federal law enforcement partners — targeted adults who solicited sex from teens online, said sheriff’s spokesman Andrew Gant. The people arrested sought to meet children through the Internet and social media for the purpose of sexual exploitation, Gant said.

Thirteen men were caught by undercover officers. One man, Benjamin Roy, 28, of Orlando, fled from police and has a warrant for his arrest, Sheriff Ben Johnson said.

Besides the luckless driver who'd run out of gas, there was Carl Tate, Jr., from Bumpass, Va., who told his wife and kids he was going out for doughnuts. Instead, he headed to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl and ended up in the handcuffs of undercover officers, investigators said.

Jacob Smoot, 19, of Ormond Beach, was waiting for his pregnant girlfriend to get off work when he decided to make use of his down time by going to meet -- he also thought -- a 14-year-old girl for sex, deputies said.

Onesi, 47, of Lovettsville, Va., was driving a 2016 Dodge when he ran out of gas in the northbound lanes of Interstate 95, Johnson said. The NASA contractor then messaged the "girl" he was supposed to meet, telling her where he was stranded on Interstate 95. Undercover officers drove out in a patrol car and picked him up, five miles from the Volusia County home where he was supposed to meet the child.

"He (Onesi) actually ran out of gas on the way up because of his excitement," Johnson said. "He ran out of gas and sent a text to the chatters that he was out of gas along with his GPS coordinates to prove that he was on the way."

The men arrested came from Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, New Smyrna Beach, Deltona, DeLand, St. Augustine, Altamonte Springs, Titusville and Cocoa. Several of the men were from Virginia.

The youngest arrested was Tyrik Williams, 18, of Cocoa, and the oldest was David Jaco, 61, of Ormond Beach.

One man, Richard Preira, 40, of Daytona Beach, walked seven minutes to get to the home where investigators were posing as teenage girls, reports show.

Another man, Joshua Ellich, 23, of Deltona, arrived at the arranged meeting place in his father’s 2002 Chevrolet utility vehicle, investigators said.

Tate was found with 9.7 grams of hydrocodone and 13 Diazepam pain pills when he arrived at the home, undercover officers said.

In a police video recording, the 40-year-old Tate can be heard telling officers he had his wife and two children at a beachside resort and that he was out getting hot doughnuts.

"Krispy Kreme was not hot doughnuts," an apparently confused Tate told police. "I was just killing time going back, catching hot doughnuts."

All the men arrested were contacted in chat rooms online, including Craigslist, where they made explicit sexual comments and advances to officers posing as children — boys and girls — ages 13 and 14. Some of the men also sent pictures of private parts to undercover sex sting agents, investigators said.

The other men arrested include Michael Jackson, 26, of Daytona Beach; Javon Douglas, 20, of Altamonte Springs; Nathan Daniels, 31, of St. Augustine; Jeffrey Goerke, 32, of Titusville; Nathaniel Whiting, 37, of DeLand; and Maxmillion Littman, 23, of New Smyrna Beach.

All the suspects were charged with use of a computer to seduce/solicit/lure a child, travel to seduce/solicit/lure/entice a child, use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, lewd and lascivious exhibition using a computer and attempted lewd and lascivious battery, records show.

Tate was additionally charged with trafficking hydrocodone and possession of a controlled substance, reports state.