There’s no good way to find out your new neighbor is a registered offender with multiple violations involving children. She’s trying to balance genuine sympathy with very real fear, and she’s not sure how to do both at once.
This woman’s neighbor sadly lost her husband a couple of days ago. She and her own husband were very close to him, so they went next door to tell their neighbor how sorry they were for her loss.
While they were chatting with their neighbor, she brought up how her son would be moving in with her shortly, as he was getting released from prison.
After returning home, she and her husband Googled this guy, and what they found left them horrified.
“Later that day, we looked him up out of curiosity and found out he’s a registered…offender with multiple violations involving minor children,” she explained.
“This immediately made us really uncomfortable. We have a young child, there’s an elementary school about a mile from our house, and our neighborhood is full of kids who walk home from school, ride bikes outside, play in the yards, etc.”
“My husband spoke with her again and asked if she had planned to tell the neighbors about the situation. Her response was that her son was ‘framed’ and that she shouldn’t have to tell anyone because she ‘lived in this neighborhood first and has lived here for years.'”
Their neighbor’s reaction has left her and her husband even more upset than they already were, as their neighbor evidently doesn’t think what happened is a big deal.
Her heart goes out to their neighbor for losing her husband, and she can sympathize with the rough time she’s going through, so that makes her hesitant to pile more stress onto her plate.
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However, she’s seriously worried about keeping the neighborhood kids safe, and she has a child of her own to protect on top of that.
“We don’t want him moving in next door, but I also realize we probably can’t legally stop it. So [am I the jerk] for being upset about this and wanting to tell our other neighbors about this so they can at least be aware?”
I do believe that registered offenders are frequently restricted from living within set distances of schools, so depending on where they live, this might be a requirement for their neighbor’s son.
I think she should alert her other neighbors and the school about this, and she should reach out to her local police department as well to see if they can help provide any insight or see if their neighbor’s son is violating any conditions of his release.
It sadly seems that their neighbor is in denial about what kind of a monster her own child is.
What do you think?
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By Bre Avery Zacharski
Hi, I'm Bre, Chip Chick's CEO! I have a degree in Textile/Surface Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, and... More about Bre Avery Zacharski
