A mother and father were able to subdue a sex offender with duct tape after they discovered him standing in their 5-year-old daughter’s room.
Prior to breaking into their child’s bedroom, the parents saw the man, later identified as 39-year-old registered sex offender Daniel Diaz, creeping around the outside of their home in Grayson, California, at around 5 a.m. Tuesday, Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office said, according to FOX40.
The mother, Martha Zepeda, told WLTX-TV in Spanish that, “He was in the living room window trying to peek in and he was grabbing his private parts and just looking around,” according to her older daughter, who was acting as a translator.
However, the parents lost sight of Diaz as he circled the outside of the house, Fox News reported. Eventually, the parents heard a crash coming from their 5-year-old daughter’s bedroom, where they discovered Diaz had removed a screen from the window and had crawled into their daughter’s room.
Ceci Ramirez, the 5-year-old’s older sister, said “The man turned on the lights and that’s when my sister woke up and she got scared,” according to KOVR-TV.
When the parents caught Diaz in the room, the father charged at him, which drove Diaz outside the home where the father was able to restrain him on the ground. The couple then used duct tape to tie up Diaz until authorities arrived.
The struggle between the father and Diaz was reportedly captured on surveillance footage, according to Newsweek. The father and mother restrained the sex offender for about 15 minutes before police arrived, Newsweek reported.
The confrontation outside the home was captured by a surveillance camera, showing the intruder held by the family for 15 minutes before police arrived. https://t.co/pjm8jVNRik
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 8, 2021
After his arrest, Diaz was charged with child endangerment, home invasion, as well as peeping and prowling, and his bail was set at $150,000, WLTX-TV reported. (RELATED: Mom Sentenced For Sexually Assaulting Children During Sleepovers)
“I was pretty scared because I thought the man would’ve taken and kidnapped her,” Ramirez told KOVR-TV of the incident.
In 2009, Diaz was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape and released in 2018, WLTX-TV reported, citing the Megan’s Law website.