What Agents Found Inside Sex Offender's Homes

We rode along as agents and deputies made surprise visits to registered sex offenders

Hundreds of convicted sex offenders have been arrested after a four day sweep across California including dozens in San Diego County, according to state parole agents.

Operation Safe Playgrounds began on Monday. State parole agents, along with local law enforcement, conducted compliance checks on registered sex offenders.

"The short message is, if you're a sex offender and you are not in compliance in any way, we are going to track you down and get you back in compliance,โ€ said parole agent Sean Torphy of the California Parolee Apprehension Team.

NBCSandiego went along with a team of agents and sheriff's deputies as they made surprise visits to registered sex offenders in East County.

The first stop was at the La Mesa home of a 73-year-old convicted child molester.  Agents handcuffed him, which is normal procedure, as they searched his apartment for violations including pornography.

When asked what his life has been like since his conviction for molesting a five-year-old girl, he simply replied, โ€œItโ€™s been hell."

Agents didn't find any violations and then went to the next target, a convicted child molester on probation at a sober living house in Spring Valley.

He wasn't home, but agents were able to search his room for violations.  He didn't have any violations, but agents were suspicious about a montage of pictures of women that hung over the man's bed.  There was also an unused condom taped to it.

The next stop took agents to a home in La Mesa where a sex offender lives with his wife and two teenage daughters. Agents found potential violations including pictures of his daughterโ€™s young friends on computer equipment that he isn't suppose to have in his possession.  Agents decided to wait to see what exactly what is on the computer hard drives before making an arrest.

"We definitely want to have our ducks in a row before we take this to court,โ€ agent Torphy said.

The final stop was a trailer in El Cajon where agents found a phone belonging to a sex offender who lives there. They say the man has been accessing teen porn sites on his phone, so they arrested him.

On Friday, state parole officials will hold a press conference to release the finally number of arrests for California.

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