I Live Next Door to a Registered Sex Offender: My Personal Trauma
90% of all sex offenders commit a crime after release from prison or jail..is your family safe at night?
By Gloria Siess, {"Garnetbird"}
The house seemed bright with promise. Yellow, airy with a private garden in back, surrounded by the explosive, joyous cries of Acorn Woodpeckers. Best of all, it had a safe feeling to it, as it was near a Christian Retreat Camp. Peace seemed to radiate over the hill into the very essence of the home itself. It had extra space for my online Bookstore inventory, and allowed for our numerous cats with only a modest pet deposit.
Wanting security, my spouse and I signed a five-year lease. It seemed the right thing to do. As a sexual abuse survivor and author of a book on incest, I was careful to check the registry to see who was living in my immediate street area. It came out clean and we started to pack and begin the task of moving 5,000 books into the new place.
About four days after signing the lease, I noticed the house next door to us had a new occupant. I watched them unload the U-Haul and a sense of unease came over me. For some reason I was loathe to confront them, even though their truck was blocking my driveway. Something in me said to stay away and avoid meeting these people. The man was very tall, heavy, with a hard look on his face and a beard. He was with a yellow-haired lady who appeared tough and frazzled. Something about them disturbed me. I am not a snob or a judgmental person, but I do use my instincts. My inner alarm bell sounded ever so softly as I watched them move in.
Later the next day I felt compelled to look at the registry again. I typed in our address and was quite horrified when the dreaded red flag popped up, indicating a predator had moved into my neighborhood. My new neighbor is a registered sex offender, guilty of child rape with an individual under the age of fourteen. He is living next door to me, within a quarter mile hike to a Christian Retreat where families and their children live in cabins. I was stunned. I had done everything right and it had still turned out terribly wrong. An offender had moved in days after I signed my lease and there was no turning back, and no place else to go.
I called my leasing agent and she, too, was shocked. She contacted the home owners association in that area and the owner was not aware her agent had rented the house to a offender. Since he was technically not living next door to a family with children, he was not breaking the law. My agent suggested I call to the local Police Department. I did so, and the deputy advised me to stay alert and let them know if he harassed me in any way or was seen in the presence of children. Other than that, there was nothing they could do, of course.
I was also advised that if I circulated flyers in my neighborhood or otherwise harassed the offender, I would be subject to criminal charges under the law. A good friend of mine who runs a recovery program for Incest Survivors advised me to keep a low profile and secretly keep a journal in case any suspicious activity is observed. Due to her experience, she warned me that registered offenders can be explosive if confronted and to avoid any eye contact or verbal exchange with the neighbor.
As the author of a true story on my own childhood experience with incest and molestation, I find this situation unbearable, eerie and extremely ironic. I can only thank God that I live watchfully and am going to purchase a economical home security system for my own peace of mind and that of my family's.
To monitor your own neighborhood, go to HOMEFACTS.COM and type in your immediate address. If there are offenders in your area, they will be flagged with a red dot. Click on the dots and the offenders photo and criminal charges will pop up. Take this information to MUGSHOTS.COM for a more detailed profile of the criminal activity and specific dates. I am sorry to say that there are no laws to protect someone from this-- if the offender moves in after they do. In my case, he moved next door mere days after we had signed a five year lease.
Note: As of 2013, the offender has moved and my prayers were answered.