Parents concerned about sex offenders on Halloween

EVERETT, Wash. — On Halloween night, when children are going door to door asking strangers for candy, we wanted to know what's being done to make sure sex offenders aren't the ones opening up. 

Sheri Sproles has specific rules when it comes to sending out her 10-year-old son Isaiah to trick-or-treat.

"He cannot go by himself and he's not allowed to touch any of the candy until I've looked at it and made sure it's not open," said Sproles.

The Everett mom receives alerts and updates when a sex offender moves to the neighborhood.

"I really don't think people are as aware of how many sex offenders there are in the general public," said Sproles.

We logged on to the Snohomish County Sheriff's website, focused on Everett, and looked up all of the registered Level II and Level III sex offenders, the most likely to re-offend. We found 170.

We then searched every profile and found 38 have specific no-contact orders with minors as a condition of their release.

Brian Micheau is one of those offenders who lives with two other offenders in this apartment.

"I try to keep myself busy" says Micheau.

He lives in a neighborhood full of family homes and says his corrections officer warned him about what to do if children come to the door.

"We turn the lights off and we have a timer down stairs, we turn it off. Anyone knocks, we look through the peephole," he said.

It's not enough for Sproles to feel safe. She's taking Isaiah to Arlington where the rest of her family lives.

"I don't like this part of Everett. It's got a lot of drug activity, sex offenders, not good things," she said.

The Sheriff's Office spokesperson says they don't have the manpower for extra patrols tonight without spending taxpayer money on overtime.

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