Sex Offender Accused Of Luring Girl to Home

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A convicted sex offender is in jail Wednesday night after Gaston County police say he used Facebook to lure a 14-year-old girl to his Dallas home.

“Just to know he lives up the street anyway was already concerning, ” said Dallas resident, Linda Garden.

Linda Garden found out from neighbors that registered sex offender 60-year-old Thomas Woody lived doors down from her family including a 13-year-old daughter on Cloverdale Lane in Dallas.

“I advised my kids to walk on the other side of the street of course, and not to go on that side or near that house, period,” said Garden.

Gaston County police say Woody created a Facebook account and used it to lure a 14-year-old girl to his house.

Police found the girl there after she was reported as a runaway.

“They get in a chat room, they start talking and it’s pretty much like catching a fish if you throw the right bait out there and someone starts talking” Said Captain Radford.

Captain Mile Radford heads the Gaston County Sheriff’s Office Sex Offender Task Force and says these men target victims seeking attention and though sex offenders aren’t allowed on social media, they create Facebook accounts and find their way to contact victims.

“There’s all kind of social stuff snapchats and Instagram and a lot of that stuff is hard to trace cause it vanishes as quick as you use it” said Radford.

Captain Radford says parents have to monitor closely.

“You don’t let your child go in their bedroom or in a computer room shut the door and stay on the computer all night,” said Capt. Radford.

Garden says her husband checks her daughter’s Facebook and phone already, but will check more often now.

“He makes sure that she’s not doing things or talking to people she’s not supposed to be talking to.”

Woody is being held at Gaston County jail on $150,000 bond.