A group of vigilante youths have been caught on camera apprehending a convicted sex offender at his home before allegedly assaulting him. The offender, aged in his 50s, said the hooded strangers showed up at his Allegan County, Michigan home just after midnight on Sunday.
Victim's Account
Speaking anonymously with Fox 8, he said one of the children told him that 'people on the registry need to be dead', before another punched him in the head, leaving him concussed. The man said he is on the sex offenders register after having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl when he was 19.
He explained that a group of strangers tracked him down through his history on the register, and turned up at his home in the dead of night. The Michigan resident said he and his wife heard a commotion outside his garage.
'I heard the rattle of the garage door and then the banging, and thought, "What in the world's going on here?"' he told Fox 8. 'So, then I opened up the garage door… and there were all the kids standing side by side of each other.'
Caught on Camera
A group of vigilante youths have been caught on a Blink doorbell camera apprehending a convicted sex offender at his Michigan home before allegedly assaulting him. The offender, aged in his 50s, said the strangers showed up at his Allegan County, Michigan home just after midnight on Sunday, as shown on a neighbor's Blink doorbell camera.
A neighbor's Blink doorbell camera captured the moment five or six people wearing hoodies entered the home. 'They started asking me about my personal background, and they asked me what my first name was,' the sex offender recalled.
Confrontation
He said he told the group his name, despite noticing that one member of the group was recording their conversation on a phone. 'I was trying to be open and be honest,' he explained. 'I did tell them the truth, but they kept going on and on about, "Well, you still did this. You still did that."'
He added that he explained that his past crime was committed as a teenager more than 30 years ago and that he deeply regrets it. However, the vigilantes did not listen to what he had to say, with one even telling him that 'people on the registry need to be dead'.
'That's when my wife said, "enough" and she told me that I needed to come in,' he said. But at this point, one of the intruders struck him in the head.
'I turned my head to look at the kids on the right, (and) the kid on the left … blindsided me with a hit to the head with a fist,' he recalled. 'I could feel the, you know, the knuckles on the back of my head, right here,' he said, pointing to an area behind his ear.
Aftermath
The sex offender's wife sat beside him as he detailed the ordeal to Fox 8 this week. He said he suffered a concussion from the assault, and the children fled. The Michigan native said he pleaded guilty in 1991 to first-degree sexual assault of a child in another state. He said he was sentenced to 120 days in jail and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.
The offender said he met the victim at a roller-skating rink, and they started a relationship that lasted about a year. 'I was 19 years old and being very, very stupid and selfish and did something wrong,' he told Fox 8 of his past actions.
'I'm not afraid to open up about what I have done, and that includes employers. I admit my wrongdoings. I point the finger at my own self because God, he gives us life, right? He doesn't control what we do down here. God didn't make me do what I did.' He said the girl's father found out about the relationship and brought charges against him.
