ORLANDO, Fla. — State law bans sex offenders from schools, daycares, parks and playgrounds, but WFTV found Wednesday that dozens of them live in local hotels.
Monique Harris and friends are in Orlando for a gymnastics competition. They're staying at one of International Drive's finest hotels and they had no idea.
"We've never seen him before, but if he's a registered sex offender he could just grab us into the elevator and do God knows what," hotel guest Monique Harris told WFTV.
A sex offender listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's website reported his address at an I-Drive hotel, room 2128.
"When you put predators in with the prey, somebody is going to get bit," said Wes Bledsoe of A Perfect Cause.
Bledsoe heads a group that found 94 registered sex offenders this year living in hotels and motels in Orlando and Kissimmee.
Some seem to specialize in it. In a state file of 19 different offenders and predators, since the beginning of the year they've all been in and out of the same Kissimmee motel. The owner of the motel in Kissimmee, who did not want his name revealed, said he couldn't keep them out if he wanted to.
"If somebody does anything wrong, we have to give them a chance to prove themselves," he said.
But, he said, he turns away guests who have children.
Many of the offenders are under state supervision.
One resident staying at a hotel on Holden Avenue in Orlando was shocked to learn one of his neighbors is a registered offender.
"He's here. I see him all the time. He walks back and forth on the courtyard," the unnamed neighbor said.
Bledsoe has documented crimes committed by registered sex offenders at hotels all across the country.
"Children have been molested. Women have been raped. And even one senior in a Motel 6 who was murdered," he said.
Other guests have no idea who may be outside the lobby, down by the pool or in the room next door. Anyssa Green said she should have been told.
"They shouldn't be able to be around kids," Green said.
That's why Bledsoe urges parents to check the sex offender registry before they book rooms.
In these cases, neither sex offenders nor hotels are breaking the law. In fact, offenders don't have to notify hotels and many hotels may not even know.
WFTV
