Reason: Publishing Registered Sex Offenders’ Home Addresses Before Halloween Is Gratuitous, Unethical, and Reckless
Every year in the run-up to Halloween, Patch publishes maps showing the homes of “registered sex offenders” in various cities. Ostensibly, this information is aimed at helping parents who worry that their children might be molested while trick-or-treating. But research shows that such fears have no basis in reality, and these stories—like the warning signs and restrictions imposed by local police prior to Halloween—mainly serve to stigmatize people who have already completed their sentences, along with their spouses and children, who have committed no crimes at all. That stigma invites harassment, vandalism, and violence. Like much local journalism, the practice of publishing these maps is ill-informed sensationalism masquerading as a public service.
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Southern California
This M**F’er is STILL going strong. Shit, I’m SO stupid. I was just trying to help out a family member who thought this was real… Should have looked up his name/”badge number” before talking to him any further. Called me from a (661) area code number. Scammed me for $849. Filing a report with the Sheriff dept
He’s at it in northern cal also. I got a weird voicemail of him talking to someone else who had the same name as me saying something about up dates n smart office and sorna. It’s an acronym for a something sex offender related. It’s like he had accidentally called my number while he talked on another phone to this other person. Chris Hastings 7u34 badge number. Thing is I got got a couple hrs ago with a similar scan. I’m so caught up in trilling to someday get off the registry that I didn’t think twice about paying a ‘bail’ in Google pay cards so I wouldn’t b out of compliance. Bout halfway thru the whole ordeal I wizened up n told a cashier I was being blackmailed. She was already suspicious bc I kept going in buying more cards all freaked out. The worst part was she called the cops, who just happen to know me well n i was arrested bc they thought I was on drugs n hallucinating the whole thing. But fuck this guy. I’m reporting him asap. His # is 925 318 7048 as of last week.
He’s still at it, same name, same badge number, with a local phone number. Sgt Chris Hastings, 7U34
This guy calls my wife, he says there is a warrant for my arrest if I don’t take the call. She tells him I’m at work. He tells her I’m a sex offender and there is a warrant for my arrest. She gets his info & I call him back, of course as soon as you hear the VM it’s a scam. So I play along and leave a message to have him call me. So Sgt Chris Hastings calls me right back I gave him my info and sure enough he finds me on Florida website. He then tells me there is a warrant for my arrest and since I did not respond to the registered mail they sent me. I ask him what address he sent to and right away he starts yelling at me they will send the marshals to my house unless I pay the 800 bond via gift cards. I ask why? He said all sex offenders were required to register in September and then turn themselves in the local jail on October 31 to avoid the trick or treaters in NJ. I start laughing at him and he gets real nasty and tells me there sending the marshals to my house, he then hangs up. So my kids and all their friends call him and every time he calls them back & tells them they will all go to jail for calling a federal phone number.
Dept of Justice
SORNA Division Trenton, NJ
Sgt. Chris Hastings
Badge 7U34
732-436-4557
Call him leave a VM and he calls you right back, but if you dont have real sex offender info, he hangs up. I called the police and he has been scamming sex offenders in Jersey for the last two weeks. I find it amazing the number is still active,
Oh the police just called me back. The scammer did his homework, he found out I live in Jersey by the Florida offender website. He does a white pages search on everyone living at my address. My wife has had the same cell number since 2001 and apparently its tied to my address, and that’s how he was able to get her. In Jersey only teir 2 & 3 are public info.
John
Yeah it is supposed to be a state and I believe a Federal crime to use the registry for personal, illegal or harmful gain. Having said that, I do not know of a single person charged with that even though we have numerous instances where the registry was used to harm or harass and even murder someone on the registry.
But remember kids, the registry is not punishment but a gift to the non registered public and Normal people
Sorry you and your family were subjected to that. I live in Georgia where everyone is listed on the online registry. I had the same thing happen last year but the Jckss told me I had to meet him in Atlanta with cash and that ‘he’d meet me in the parking lot so as to avoid me having to go thru the arrest process’ for the warrant. The interesting part…my mobile number is not mine, it’s a company phone # and while the Fulton Co sheriff’s office has the number, it is not published publicly. Again even if it were it’s not in my name. All that to say, I’m convinced it’s someone from the ‘inside’ of the FCSO who’s accessing the info for their neighborhood ‘brothers’ to run the scam.
Also in Georgia, and have had similar attempts. I like to have fun with it. They’d say I violated a court order to provide a DNA sample or something, I’d tell them to mail it again and they’d get their sample when I mailed it back after wiping my ass with it. They’d tell me to go somewhere and they were tracking me on my phone, I’d tell them you know where I am, come get me. Stuff like that.
PG
I had the same thing happen when they were sending out the Clear my case scam cards. I new from the start it was a scam because anyone claiming they can get you off the registry guaranteed is full of $#@%. I use to put them in an envelope and send them back to them with postage due. They would always open it hoping it was a sucker falling for their scam.
I know they must have paid the postage because I never got them back.
Hastings is still at it, but now he is working out of Southern California apparently. He has the same badge number, and he can be reached at (626) 534-8947. Thank you for posting this information so that I could google him easily.
k.c
When you get these, go to sites like Safe caller and mark the numbers as spam
I just did that with the number you posted and there were already some who did the same with one poster even noting it was a law enforcement scam. My report adds to that now. The more votes it gets as an unsafe #, many phone companies or programs let you know when the call comes through that it may be an unsafe caller.
This just happened to us too..he was reported to the local sherrifs after seeing this article..he is lurking in California snd using 559 423 7839 number out of Lemoore..he scammed us iut of 1200 dollar in pre paid green dot cards..he also then called again at 5 am requesting more money saying the cards didn’t go through..we then called the cops and they had us file a complaint with the ftc