FamilyWatchdog.US used to bust registered offender who attempted to lure a child from his mother

FamilyWatchdog.US was recently used by a Florida mother to identify, locate and arrest a registered offender who attempted to lure her four-year-old son from a Florida park.

The mother, who remains unidentified citing privacy and security issues, told her son not to talk to strangers when an unknown man approached him while playing in Navarre Park in Santa Rosa County, Florida. The young boy later told his mother the man asked if he wanted to go home and play ball at the man's house. Growing concerned, she searched the area around Navarre Park for registered offenders using FamilyWatchdog.us, the nation's leading offender registry resource. After viewing just one other registered offender, the woman found a picture of the man who just hours earlier approached her son in Navarre Park. According to the Santa Rosa County Sheriff, 27 year old Thomas Andrew Vandegrifft, convicted in 1999 of Lewd and Lascivious Assault on a Child under 16, was later positively identified by four individuals, arrested, and charged with Luring and Enticing a Child, a 3rd degree felony. Vandegrifft was denied bond and remains in the Santa Rosa County Jail awaiting trial.

We at FamilyWatchdog.US were elated when we heard about this arrest. This is an example where providing important safety information about known threats to the community has been instrumental in arresting a dangerous person attempting to prey on an unsuspecting child. Had this woman not searched the area around the park and found this predator using FamilyWatchdog.US, how many children would he have taken, and what would he have done to them? Thankfully, that question will never need to be answered.

While this woman was able to find a predator using FamilyWatchdog.us, we do not view this as our success alone. Everyone that visits FamilyWatchdog.us, everyone that seeks to inform themselves about potential threats in their area, and everyone that has said "ENOUGH" and has stepped up to protect themselves, their family, and their community share in this success story. This mother could have stopped at don't talk to strangers. She could have stopped when she saw Vandegrifft was a registered offender. Instead, she became the eye of her community. We applaud her for this. This is why we developed FamilyWatchdog.us, and it is why this search service is, and will remain, free for all to use.

As this Florida woman knows, remaining informed can save the life of someone close to you. What can you do to become the eye of your community?

• Please take a moment and go to http://www.familywatchdog.us to see what has changed. Remember that there are over 1,000 offenders that move every single day.
  
• Tell your friends about FamilyWatchdog.us. The child you save may not be yours, but a friend's.
  
• Don't assume that you are safe because of where you live. We have identified many millionaire child molesters on FamilyWatchdog.us.
  
• If you have a problem accessing our site or its features, please email us at c.s@familywatchdog.us and tell us the problem. We can't fix problems if we don't know about them.

Imported from external blog