Sex Offenders Fill Ranks of Family-Friendly Businesses
Where Do Sex Predators Work?Like a lot of mothers, Vanessa Basile clicked into the state's sex-offender registry to see if pedophiles lived near her property.
"We were quite surprised," she said.
And then she considered the next question, one that doesn't cross the minds of most parents.
"You see how many live around you and you figure they have to work," she said. "They've got to work somewhere."
For years, sex-offender registries concentrated exclusively on where sex offenders live. Only recently did Virginia begin a comprehensive program to list work addresses, sometimes dispatching troopers to check the addresses' accuracy.
Although the state's registry does have a mapping function for work addresses, Your NewsChannel 3 found the graphic-intensive function slow to work on most computers. The data also frequently displayed mistakes, often showing home addresses instead of work addresses.
To get a comprehensive look at where sex offenders spend a third of their days or more, You NewsChannel 3 obtained from the Virginia State Police a comprehensive database listing the employment of Virginia's registered sex offenders.
We found hundreds working at jobs that put them in direct contact with the kinds of people they hurt in the first place.
"That is surprising," said Tony Darley as he played with his son one afternoon at Mount Trashmore. Like many parents, Darley had not considered that bringing his child to a fast-food restaurant might mean contact with a sex offender.
The NewsChannel 3 analysis of the state police data reveals McDonalds employs the most sex offenders in the region, even though a company spokesman said the fast-food icon neither knowingly hires or employs convicted sex offenders.
"Don't they have some kind of interview they go through where they are asked questions like that," said Darley.
Your NewsChannel 3 found a sex offender working at McDonalds who said, yes, the company does ask. The convicted offender said he checked the box on the application declaring he was a convicted sex offender, and he got the job anyway.
"McDonalds says on their application they give an equal opportunity chance," he said. "That means everybody" including felons, he said.
When asked why so many sex offenders work at local McDonalds restaurants, the company issued this statement: "We take these matters very seriously and are investigating these specific allegations. It is our company policy not to hire or employ registered sex offenders."
Although McDonalds said it would investigate, no one from the company asked Your NewsChannel 3 for the list of offenders we called about.
McDonalds may employ the most, but state police records show sex offenders working at a variety of family friendly businesses, from book stores to bowling alleys.
That disturbs parents like Basile, mostly because she knows there is little she can do about it.
"You try to think that someone has been rehabilitated to some extent, and needs to work," she said. "You just try not to let your kids out of your sight."
Those Colored Balls in the play area...Stay away!
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