You wouldn't invite a convicted child molester into your home, but they could come into your house without you suspecting anything. Most people assume repairmen, installation workers, and delivery people are just there to do their jobs. And in most cases, they are.
But Local 12's Rich Jaffe shows us, some people with criminal backgrounds could be walking right through your front door.
Before you ever open the door to a stranger, consider the case of Danny Warman. Last November, local investigators were searching for the convicted sexual predator. Clermont County issued warrants for Warman after he failed to register his address. Wilmington Police wanted him for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. A tip to CrimeStoppers got Warman arrested. Where had he been? He had been working for a subcontractor used by a local carpet company.
Det. Brian Kratzer, Wilmington Police: "He'd be in houses where you'd have pictures of your family setting around, he's installing carpet...kind of look at all the pictures of the family... maybe kids left home alone, older teenagers, it would definitely be alarming, a guy who's a tier three sex predator is coming and going out of your house."
So, who's legally responsible checking out these people? Not the carpet company, since Warman was a subcontractor. In fact, no law requires criminal background checks. However, many companies do it on their own. Last year, Ohio courts ruled Home Depot was not responsible for what one of their subs did.
In 2004, Derek Lee Sullivan, another carpet installer, worked as a subcontractor for Home Depot when he robbed a Clermont County couple, after making a delivery to their home. Sullivan pleaded guilty, but never showed up to serve his sentence. There are now several warrants on file for him in Ohio and Kentucky. Companies use subs, because it's cheaper. They avoid taxes and paying workers compensation.
In 1999, career criminal Fred Furnish worked for a Northern Kentucky carpet cleaner. A few days after a job at Ramona Jean Williamson's Crestview Hills home, he returned to rob it, and he strangled her.
Carl Hiner, Homeowner: "I think, like most people, I was absolutely shocked this could happen in this neighborhood, which is considered a nice, sedate, upper middle class subdivision. I think we were all absolutely shocked."
The company that hired the long time felon, never ran a background check. Carl Hiner still lives three doors down from where Williamson was murdered.
"It totally changed our mindset and thought about being safe in the area and we, like a lot of people on the street, had alarm systems installed. It was not so much to protect what we had inside the house, but to prevent someone being in there when we came home, and we became a lot more careful."
Careful about not letting a criminal through the door.
Rich Jaffe, Local 12.
In 2004, Home Depot centralized their system for doing background checks. A spokesman tells us every subcontractor now goes through an extensive check process. They also periodically recheck them once they're hired. Last year, the company ran more than 70 thousand background checks on sub-contractors.
