GARY BECKER BUSTED. Not the economist.

By the time [Racine] Mayor Gary Becker engaged in a 2 1/2 -hour online chat Monday night with "Hope_Ulikeme14," he already had participated in several salacious virtual conversations with girls and collected child pornography, according to a five-felony criminal complaint filed against him Thursday.

Even so, Becker, 51, a married father of two daughters, worried about meeting someone who he believed was a 14-year-old girl.

"We better chat more, this is too dangerous," Becker told an undercover agent on the phone Tuesday afternoon, the complaint says.

He even asked "Hope" if she was a "cop."

But about an hour later, Becker, seemingly well-positioned to continue his six-year tenure as mayor for years to come, arrived at the agreed-upon meeting place: the food court at Brookfield Square mall, the complaint says.

Oops.