Osceola Co. sex offender who cut GPS monitor says he was 'just hanging out'

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — A convicted Osceola County sex offender on the run for days finally turned himself in.

He told Channel 9's Nancy Alvarez he was "just hanging out."

Jeffrey Bailey is back in jail after turning himself in Wednesday morning and apologizing in front of an Eyewitness News reporter.

Bailey, 58, would not say exactly where he was in Osceola County since he ripped off his GPS ankle monitor Friday.

"Were you on drugs?" Alvarez asked.

"Yeah, I took some pills," Bailey said.

In 2002, Bailey was convicted of a lewd act on a girl under 16. He registered as a sex offender when he got out of prison in 2010. His GPS monitoring was supposed to end in less than a month but he apparently couldn't wait that long.

He spent the last four days a free man.

"Did you have any contact with kids?" Alvarez asked.

"No, I didn't," Bailey said.

Osceola County detectives are still working to trace Bailey's steps. The agency is also speaking out about how it handled his disappearance.

Eyewitness News asked why a public alert was not issued until Tuesday when the Sheriff's Office knew Bailey's GPS monitor had stopped transmitting on Friday.

"What is your message to the community who may see this and say this was not fast enough for us?" Alvarez asked Osceola County spokesperson Twis Lizasuain.

"In retrospect, we could have notified the public sooner," Lizasuain said.

WFTV