It's a TRAP!
BELLA VISTA, Ark. - A woman in Benton County hung a sign on a neighbor's door warning people that the man who lived there was a sex offender.
But there were two problems: she had the wrong house, and even if she had the right house, police say sex offender notifications can't be used to harass released convicts.
"Don't play here. Child molester lives here," the sign said, according to a police report.
Carolyn Hansen of Bella Vista also posted warnings in a nearby park. Those signs said, "There is a child molester here. Keep children out of the park."
Hansen told sheriff's investigators she'd been told by her daughter that a sex offender who moved to the neighborhood lived in the house.
The signs were collected, but a deputy saw Hansen posting the fliers again and stopped her.
After Hansen learned the address she had was the wrong one, she apologized to the man she targeted, deputies said. The man didn't want her prosecuted so she was not charged, Benton County sheriff's investigator Barb Shrum said.
The names, addresses and photographs of all level 3 and 4 sex offenders are available on the Arkansas Crime Information Center Web site. A sex offender listed on the registry had moved near the park.
The center's Web site notes that the information is provided to the public as a service, but "anyone who uses this information to commit a criminal act against another person is subject to criminal prosecution" which obviously didn't happen in her case.
"The whole point of this is to be able to keep your family and your neighborhood safe from these people, but you can't harass them," Shrum said.
Yeah, that's the theory, but everyone knows how it's really going to be.
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