Chauncey Wright went looking for a job and got federally indicted instead. That's the way he put it Friday after being sentenced to six months of house arrest and four years' probation for his involvement in an undercover sting being run by the ATF.

ATF agents hired Wright — who has brain damage, an IQ of 54 and functions at the level of a kindergartner — to work last year for their fake storefront in Riverwest. They met him outside of a Walmart and offered him a job promoting Fearless Distributing, spreading the word that the store was looking for people willing to sell guns and drugs.

Wright, 28, rode his bike all over the city, from the lakefront to Midtown and down to the south side passing out fliers marketing Fearless and helping set up deals.

Agents paid him with cigarettes, shoes and a little cash. And when they shut down their sting, they referred him for criminal charges on gun and drug counts.

Wright said he had no idea the store was a sham and that its workers were federal agents.

"I had no clue," he told the Journal Sentinel on Friday after being released from jail where he has been for the last six months while his case was pending. "I thought they were my people. I was trying to welcome them to the neighborhood, help them out."

The ATF's "Operation Fearless" is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Inspector General for a slew of foul-ups and failures exposed in recent months by a Journal Sentinel investigation.

The sting was aimed at taking guns and drugs off the street, but the Journal Sentinel found it was marred by an agent having his machine gun stolen, the storefront being ripped off, agents allowing a felon with a gun to leave the store after he admitted he needed it to shoot someone, charges being filed against the wrong people — including a man who was in prison at the time — and other missteps.

The operation resulted in charges against about 30 people, the majority on low-level drug and gun offenses.

U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller said Wright's case may be the silver lining.

"If there's one shining light in the ATF's undercover operation, it's you getting the medical treatment and attention that has been so neglected in your life," Stadtmueller told Wright.

Wright's mental difficulties are traced to an incident when he was an infant and nearly drowned when he was left for at least 10 minutes unattended in a bathtub, his family members said....