Sexual offenders forced to move out of mobile home park

Monday, November 23, 2009

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The Polk County Sheriff's Office is giving sexual offenders until Wednesday to move out.

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- The Polk County Sheriff's Office is giving sexual offenders a deadline to move out of the Tropical Moon mobile home park.

The owner has let eight of them set up tents in the back of the property, off Old Dixie Highway, after they were forced out of a neglected grove for trespassing.

The sheriff's office says the predators are breaking a county law by being within 2,500 feet of a bus stop.

Residents across the street say parents are being protective.

"It's really not fair to the kids that we have to keep them inside the house or keep them from going to see their friends because of the predators across the street here," said Joe Clites, a neighbor.

Sheriff Grady Judd knows there are few places in Polk where predators can legally live but he says 43 others have managed to do it.

"They are sexual predators. They are felons and they are going to comply with the law or I'm going to put them in the county jail where they can be in compliance with the law," Judd said.

The sheriff's office is giving them until Wednesday to comply.

Bay News 9 attempted to talk to some of the offenders, but the park demanded that we leave the property. The owner, Lori Crump, tells our partner newspaper, The Ledger, that Polk laws for where sexual predators can live are so strict, many end up homeless.

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