App leads to arrest of sex offender in Pasadena

PASADENA, TX (KTRK) -- A sex offender who failed to register as such was arrested, thanks to a tip to the iWatchHarrisCounty mobile app, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies say Shawn David Hayes, 32, claimed to be living in a home in the 800 block of Easy St. in La Porte, but was really living at a home in Pasadena.

Investigators say Hayes, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2002 for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, was found to be living in the Pasadena home with seven children, only one of whom was his.

Deputies also say he was selling drugs out of the house and add that he avoided arrest thanks to a surveillance system he had at the home.

"We don't feel safe," said one neighbor. "We are not accustomed to see that thing for our families."

Deputies seized several surveillance cameras, weapons, prescription pills and drugs. Hayes is now out on bond, but is being forced to wear an electronic monitor.

Sheriff Adrian Garcia says his office has received 110 tips that have led to arrests since the iWatch app was launched in 2011.

And the program is growing quickly, with 60 more tips that have led to arrests so far than this year than in the past two years.

"We're getting a lot of tips that are helping us put bad guys in jail," said Sheriff Garcia. "We are making an incredible arrests. We're seizing an incredible volume of narcotics."