A Bakersfield woman who was very worried after a registered sex offender's GPS monitor bracelet was found behind her apartment, contacted 17 News. She didn't know the story behind it and says she couldn't get an answer for four days.
"I came out to empty my garbage, and I saw some kids playing near the garbage," said Jennifer Myers.
Jennifer Myers has lived at her apartment complex for two years. She said she's never seen anything like what her son and his friends found Sunday.
"They were playing with something that didn't look like a toy," said Myers.
What the boys found was a GPS tracking device for a parolee.
"I was kind of concerned because I have kids in this area. You know, they go to school out here on this bus, and also there's a lot of kids that live in this neighborhood. So for me to find something like this is very scary," said Myers.
She tried to return it. "I called the number that was on the back of it and the lady said she was going to contact the parole office, and I never got a call back. No one ever came to pick up the device or anything."
It turns out the bracelet was assigned to a missing registered sex offender who was arrested September 15th.
"It just makes me feel concerned when my son is playing in this area, and you know it's a guy on the loose running around here that just broke his monitor off. That's scary," said Myers.
Initially, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would not tell us the date the parolee cut the bracelet off or even his name. However, they called us shortly after the story ran Thursday at 5 p.m. and told us the sex offender's name is Anthony Rocha.
CDCR said it did not respond immediately to get the device because Rocha had already been arrested. They say Rocha cut the device on the afternoon of August 6th and an arrest warrant was issued that same day. He was arrested by Bakersfield police on September 15th.
CDCR said it's important to note that the sex offender was not arrested in the area of the woman's home and that he only went there to dump the GPS device.
They also say the viewer who called the number on the GPS device spoke only to a vendor, and it's not clear when the local parole agents were made aware of her concerns.
CDCR said anytime a monitoring bracelet is cut off or its battery goes dead, they are immediately notified. They then search for the violator and put out a warrant for their arrest.
