PUTNAM COUNTY, Fla. – An outraged Putnam County community sounded the alarm to the sheriff’s office about living next to a trailer park that was home to convicted sex offenders and child predators.
The Putnam County Sheriff’s Office moved in on the CCM Trailer Park Friday afternoon to investigate the park and kick out the tenants over code enforcement violations.
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The investigation was sparked after the sheriff’s office received complaints from neighbors.
“Putnam County is not a sanctuary for sex offenders. We are not going to turn this into a predator’s paradise on my worst day or a cold day in hell would I ever allow that to happen,” Deloach said.
Investigators discovered more than 20 offenders and predators were living at the park at the corner of Balsam Street in Norwood Street.
Leon Wells was one of the neighbors who expressed his concerns.
“I got grandkids here. That’s close to them and I’m really concerned for them. It’s overwhelming,” Wells said.
“Very uncomfortable with that. We got kids. We got a little girl. A little boy and another boy on the way, so we don’t want to live that close to so many at once,” Kylie Wells said.
Deloach explained what investigators learned. Click here to watch the sheriff’s update on the investigation.
“We were able to determine that sometime back in December a company, we believe is based out of Volusia County, acquired this trailer park and was trying to make it a sanctuary for sex offenders and predators,” Deloach said.
There were 14 trailers on the property. All but three were condemned by the code enforcement.
Deloach said the trailers were condemned for a “whole list of code violations.”
“These are old mobile homes from the 60s and 70s. They’ve had modifications made to them, unpermitted work. Unlicensed contracting, and the fact of the matter is none of these are going to be brought up to 2025 code.”
News4JAX spoke to the property owner Julie Martin, who said she would work to bring the homes up to code.
She also said the sheriff’s office should not be surprised because they should already know registered sex offenders are monitored.
“If people are scared, it’s because they’re uneducated. If they would just allow themselves to read and understand, they would probably calm down and realize these people are not anything wrong and they’re not trying to hurt anyone,” Martin said.
Martin also hoped once the property was up to code the people kicked out would be able to return.