Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Woman Says 'Mom’s Instinct' Helped Her Spot Sex Offender Lurking At Elementary School
John Saxton, a register sex offender, was arrested after a mother says she saw him crouching behind a dumpster on school property.
A woman in Florida is crediting her motherly instincts for spotting a registered sex offender allegedly creeping around a dumpster at her child’s elementary school.
Parents had posted in a private Facebook group about a man on a bicycle passing Bauder Elementary School in Seminole at dismissal time and later discovered he was a sex offender, the Tampa Bay Times reports.
One alert mother, who wishes to remain anonymous, kept this knowledge close to her when she spotted the man behind the dumpster on Friday.
“He stopped behind the dumpster out of my view. And he stayed behind the dumpster,” the mother told FOX13 Tampa, noting she had seen him earlier in the month at the school. “So I'm like, 'This is weird.'"
She called the cops, who recognized the man as a registered sex offender.
Herbert John Saxton, 67, was arrested on a charge of trespassing on school grounds. In an arrest affidavit provided to Oxygen.com Tuesday by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, authorities wrote that Saxton “has been seen frequently riding his bicycle both in front of the school property, and onto the property.”
In fact, a complaint had been made for the very same reason just days earlier, they noted.
"There's no replacement for a mom's instinct,” the mother said “And if it feels wrong, usually it probably is.”
Saxton was later released on $1,000 bond and given a GPS monitor, according to police records.
He served four years from on sexual battery charges from a 1988 incident, according to state sex offender records. In 2004, he was charged with failing to comply with sex offender registration.
