I am a grandmother and don't travel with my grandchildren very often, but I've found in our travels that since a lot of campgrounds have full time residents on wheels, I've started to look at Familywatchdog.us . A lot of offenders use RV parks as their address and I find this disturbing. I was staying at a nice park in California and saw that there were 2 residents listed as sexual offenders against children 14 and under. When I brought this to the managements attention, I was informed that these people had a right to their privacy. I'm grateful I didn't have my granchildren with us at the time. So I recommend that if you are traveling with children, check the website to see if the campground you are willing to spend your money with is doing all they can to keep your family safe.
Wow! I never thought of that possibility. Thanks for the heads up. I'll definately make that part of the pre-trip check list...
This is the 2nd park I've been to in California that had a sexual offender against children 14 and under, I've been to in the past 2 months. All I'm asking is to keep your children safe and let management know.
Thanks for the heads up! I'm a "solo" and don't travel with children, but if there are sex offenders anywhere, perhaps there is an overall safety concern anyway! JJ
In July 1992 we were staying in a Fairfax County VA area hotel pending a transfer overseas. We had 2 adjoining rooms. My youngest daughter had a visiting friend staying with us. Given it was mid summer in hot-humid Northern Virginia the girls spent a lot of time at the hotel pool. DW and I noticed a male guest in the hotel sitting at the pool and engaged in almost constant conversation with the girls. He seemed overly interested and way too friendly towards them. One Friday night after returning to the hotel from a farewell party, someone knocked on our daughter’s door and then ran away using the stairwell next to her room. This happened one more time. Though I could not prove it, I was certain it was this same man whose room incidentally was on our floor and directly in front of the elevators. The next morning I filed a complaint with the front desk and voiced my suspicions about who was behind it all. The front desk personnel and duty manager were very dismissive and borderline rude. I returned to my room and wrote a letter of complaint documenting all that had happened. I made a copy of the letter and submitted the original to the duty manager. That night we attended another farewell party and returned to the hotel about midnight (the parties/dinners were at different friends homes and the girls were with us). The girls were very tired, went straight to bed and to sleep. A short time later the phone in my daughter’s room rang. She answered it and after a second or two asked who was calling. The caller had made some obscene comments. I immediately called the front desk using the phone in our room and complained. I asked if they could detect in-house room-to-room phone calls and was told they could if a call was active. We received another call, this time I answered, before my wife could contact the front desk the caller hung-up. This call was followed by another bang on my daughter’s door. I immediately called the Fairfax County Police and then informed the front desk I had called the police. The duty manager called the hotel manager who responded to the hotel and intercepted the officers who had been dispatched. The manager totally misrepresented what had happened and told the officers that I had demanded the guest be arrested. (Folks, I was a Supervisory Federal Law Enforcement Agent at the time and made no such demand. The only thing I wanted the hotel to do was to file a report with the police, which they had refused to do.) Anyway, we had decided to vacate the hotel and check into another one. We were in the process of gathering some of our belongings when the cops came to our room. The treated us like criminals and would not permit us to explain what had happened. When they began to lecture me about making unreasonable demands that a guest be arrested, I pulled out my credentials and identified myself as a Federal Agent. I told them the only request we had made of the hotel was they report the incident to the police, something they had refused to do. I told the officers we were leaving the hotel that night I didn’t think it unreasonable for them to visit the man’s room and ID him, and that it was a sure thing he would do the same thing to other guests with daughters. By now the officers realized they had been duped by the hotel manager. They walked down the hall and knocked on the man’s door. He refused to answer and told them to F***-Off. They got a hotel master key to enter the room, but the man used the door’s safety chain and refused to unlatch it. They finally kicked the door open. Once they ID’ed the man they found he was part of a construction crew staying at the hotel for an extended time while they resurfaced the roof of a nearby shopping mall. AND that he had recently been paroled from a Pennsylvanian prison where he had served time for rape.
Joe-N-Doe: Good for you. If more people had the chutzpah to do what you did and stand your ground, instead of letting namby-pamby people in authority and bureaucrats walk all over them, we would have less crime and more safety in this country. I applaud your tenacity and your commitment to protect your children!
Please post the name of the hotel. I have a 12 yr old daughter. If that is the protocall of this hotel chain, I will never stay.
Keep in mind that it generally lists a person's primary residence. If a person is using an RV or Mobile Home Park as a secondary residence, it might not show up. Always be on your guard.
QUOTE(Joe-n-Doe @ Dec 14 2007, 07:22 AM) [snapback]9467[/snapback] Anyway, we had decided to vacate the hotel and check into another one. We were in the process of gathering some of our belongings when the cops came to our room. The treated us like criminals and would not permit us to explain what had happened. When they began to lecture me about making unreasonable demands that a guest be arrested, I pulled out my credentials and identified myself as a Federal Agent. I told them the only request we had made of the hotel was they report the incident to the police, something they had refused to do. I told the officers we were leaving the hotel that night I didn’t think it unreasonable for them to visit the man’s room and ID him, and that it was a sure thing he would do the same thing to other guests with daughters. Yeppers, a Federal ID law enforcement badge from ANY Federal agency will always trump the locals. I'm sorry it took that type of action for them to listen to you. JJ
I tried this website and they want a fee for the information and would like you to sign up for automatic monthly billing. Is there not a free site with this info??? QUOTE(J59T @ Sep 3 2007, 05:19 PM) [snapback]8232[/snapback] I am a grandmother and don't travel with my grandchildren very often, but I've found in our travels that since a lot of campgrounds have full time residents on wheels, I've started to look at Familywatchdog.us . A lot of offenders use RV parks as their address and I find this disturbing. I was staying at a nice park in California and saw that there were 2 residents listed as sexual offenders against children 14 and under. When I brought this to the managements attention, I was informed that these people had a right to their privacy. I'm grateful I didn't have my granchildren with us at the time. So I recommend that if you are traveling with children, check the website to see if the campground you are willing to spend your money with is doing all they can to keep your family safe.
QUOTE(johnwadams @ Dec 16 2007, 06:14 PM) [snapback]9523[/snapback] I tried this website and they want a fee for the information and would like you to sign up for automatic monthly billing. Is there not a free site with this info??? Hmm.... if that site isn't free, then you probably have to check the sex offender site of each county (those are free!), and cross reference with the address of the RV park you are going to. Just a guess.... JJ
