The Rant Part 2- This ones a doosey!
Ok, so while my parents were in town, we looked at some model homes that we might be interested in purchasing. We are quite a while away from buying a house but we're weird and we think that walking through model homes is fun.
Let me explain a little about where I live. I live in a community with over 5,500 homes. It's kind of like one gigantic neighborhood with lots of little gated neighborhoods inside it. There are several different kinds of pools, 2 elementary schools, an area of shops and pizza places in the middle and lots of playgrounds. It's pretty much heaven on earth. We live in one little neighborhood and the model homes we looked at were in another area a bit closer to the elementary school the boys go to and closer to the shops.
While we were looking at some of the model homes, one sales lady was particularly pushy. She was informing me of how elite the area was, how there were only 3 lots left (all on the same street) for me to build on and if I put $10,000 down today, I could reserve one of those lots and begin the process. I thought, oh sure lady, let me just get out my check book. Anyway I did LOVE the homes. They are more of a dream home kind of thing than an ever really gonna happen kind of thing.
Cut to this weekend when I was out to dinner with a friend who is a real estate agent in the neighborhood. She informed me that on that particular street where this lady was REALLY pushing me to buy, there lived a registered sex offender. Now, to be fair, the story on this guy goes a little something like this, apparently, at first, he completely confessed to child porn charges (all pictures involved little boys). Later, after convicted, he said that he was just protecting his son. I guess it was really the son that did it. The dad served three years in prison and now owns a half a million dollar house on this street (with a park on it) (within walking distance to the elementary school where my children attend). I thought people who were convicted of such things were not legally allowed to live so close to playgrounds and elementary schools. But, I don't know all the details about that kind of stuff.
I'm not too worried about my children's safety where we live now. My kids are never outside by themselves and their schools are super strict about who comes in and goes out of the building. Either my husband or I take our kids to their classrooms in the morning and are waiting outside the doors in the afternoon. Plus, as I mentioned in a previous post, I pray over my kids every night that nothing shall by any means harm them. I believe that God is big enough to protect them. That being said, I would NEVER buy a house on that street knowing what I now know. Not even if they gave me the home for free.
Here's what ticked me off about the whole thing. This lady was really trying her best to get me to build a house on that street ASAP. She never once mentioned that this person was living there. She called me yesterday to tell me that they were having some kind of special something or other going on this weekend. I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, thinking that she surely must not have known about this man living there. Here's what she said to me, "Well, some of the other home owners have let me know about the situation. I'm not legally allowed to disclose this kind of information to anyone so, the less I know about it the better." I quickly let her know that for several reasons, she could take us off her prospective buyers list (I'm not ready to buy a half a million dollar home yet anyway). After we got off the phone, all I could think about was her words to me, "the less I know about it the better." I understand that her job is to sell homes. But if it were me, I could NEVER sell a house to a family on that street. Never. Even if it meant I lost my job. There is no amount of money worth risking the safety of children- anyones children. I cannot believe these people.
I heard someone say, "whatever this guy has done, he's served his time, lets give him a break." Well, I disagree completely. This is not like he stole a car, served his time and now knows that stealing is not worth serving time in jail. It's not just a mistake. People who do things like this have severe psychological issues and need therapy for a long, long time. It's a much deeper issue than bad judgement. Also, serving time usually makes things like this worse, not better. I do believe in forgiveness and recovery, but I also think you have to be wise about these things and buying a house on a street with this guy with my 3 little boys (and one on the way) is just foolish.
I could go on and on (as you can see) about this issue but, I won't. I'm not buying a house by this guy (whether he did it or not) and I'm going to keep a closer eye on my kids all the time.
Sheryl Bane
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Reader Comments (11)
Lori
Steph
It's hard, isn't it? We so much want our children to be safe and this world really just is not.
As Christians we don't live in fear (or at least try not to) because God is in control, but we still have to make wise decisions for our families.
Mike
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Or not. The point is, real estate agents CAN'T divulge ANY information on that sort of stuff. They can't. They'd lose their license! It's up to home buyers to check. There are simple websites and phone numbers to check. If you don't check, you can't blame anyone other than yourself, you know? She could have worded it a little nicer, with an apology, though.
We have a new neighbor that is a sex offender about 20 houses down my street. People got all riled up over him moving into an obviously family oriented neighborhood, but he was within legal rights. It sucks, but there's nothing we can do, other than watch our children. Actually, it's the people that haven't been caught that scare me the most.
I have a thought though that I hesitate to pose to you. I don't mean to offend, and if it comes across as such, I heartily apologize. My thought is regarding your complete faith that God will watch over your children because you pray over them... I've always wondered over that. Does that mean that because I don't formerly pray over my children, that God WOULDN'T protect mine? Does that mean that the children who are molested daily are less worthy of protection? Again, I don't mean to offend, but I have always been puzzled by this belief. When I pray to God over my children, it isn't for his protection, for I feel he is only involved in our lives minimally. But I pray for the strength to protect them as best as I can and to cope and heal should my protection fail.
Not trying to start any arguments here, ladies. Just wondering on different viewpoints...
Go to this website and you can search all the sexual offenders in Florida.....
http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/homepage.do
Click on the red "Search offender" button.