Tulsa Woman Concerned About Sex Offenders Living At Motel

A Tulsa woman said she's shocked at how many sex offenders are registered at a motel in her zip code.

She said she looked up the registry after a News On 6 story about trick or treating safety.

The woman said she knows the restrictions on sex offenders are tight and that they have a lot of hoops to jump through.

But she said she worries about people from outside the area. 

Lori West recently moved back to Tulsa from Texas.

She said after watching the News on 6 story about sex offender safety, she wanted to check out her own zip code.

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"Every name I clicked on almost and the vast majority kept pulling up this same address," West said. "So I looked up the address and it led me to this hotel."

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West said her quick search led to more than 10 registered sex offenders living in the Tulsa extended stay Inn and Suites near 41st and Memorial.

Tulsa police said this is actually pretty common.

"They get clustered because of the limitations on where they can reside within cities," Bonham said. 

In fact, police said many apartment complexes won't allow sex offenders and many get out of jail and need a cheap place to stay in low rent motels.

But police said it's not typically the registered folks that cause problems.

"Because I know they're there and because I have their DNA on file and their tattoos documented. We know which apartment they're in or which room number they're in, if anything were to happen out there they would be very easy to find," Bonham said. 

They said it's the ones you don't know about, living wherever they please.

But West said she still worries about people from out of town who book a room among predators.

"Any hotel you go to, you're not going to know who the other people are that are staying there. However, this place has multiple listings of people claiming this as their residence," she said. "I don't want my grandma and grandpa coming to visit me and staying at a place that is known to house offenders."