Advice

Location: California

My neighbor is a registered sex offender and on parole. We used to be neighborly with him, but stopped after he crossed the line multiple times. He made uncomfortable comments toward my sister, wife and would touch them in “friendly” ways that felt inappropriate, so we stopped talking to him back in November.

On the 12th of this month, he came to our door trying to talk to us again, but we purposely did not answer.

Today I was in my backyard and noticed him outside near the side of his house. I could hear and see him through a gap in my wooden fence. He was leaned against his house facing toward me. I did not want to talk to him, so after a while I went back inside.

Later, I went upstairs to use the bathroom and looked out the window toward the side yard area that faces our house. That is when I saw him masturbating with himself fully exposed. He was on his own property, but it was completely visible from ours and made me feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe.

I’m wondering if police would actually take this seriously even though he was technically on his own property, and if there is anything we can do to protect ourselves as neighbors.

EDIT: made the report the cops are here and it turns out it wasn’t my neighbor (the registered sex offender) It was his brother, if it was the registered sex offender Neighbor. They would’ve taken him tonight, but since it’s not. They just gave the brother a warning and left me with an incident number. And they let me know that the guys PO might reach out to me if he has any questions.