Garrido: The Ultimate Nut Job Pervert

CLEVELAND - I have been absolutely transfixed, stunned and baffled at the criminal audacity of Phillip Garrido, the 58-year old California man that kidnapped, raped, twice impregnated and held captive Jaycee Dugard for a staggering 18 years.

What a loser.

Garrido amazingly managed to abduct Dugard in June 1991 when she was just 11 years old from a school bus stop as her step-father watched in horror from two blocks away. That was stunning enough as it were, but Garrido was a known sexual predator who had served just 11 years of an imposed 50 year sentence in the penitentiary for a litany of crimes (particularly rape) he committed against a 25-year old women in 1976. The fact that he was already "heavy in the system" for unspeakable and immoral crimes, yet went unimpeded in the Dugard abduction for nearly two decades is astonishing to me and scores of other Americans.

Wow.

Garrido was a pervert and sociopath of epic proportions. He molested Dugard at least twice and almost certainly far more times than that; he fathered two children with her when she was just 12 in 1993 and again when she was 16 in 1997. Those children, now aged 15 and 11 never attended school or visited a doctor. They were kept in an elaborate and obscured tent in Garrido's backyard along with their mother Dugard, whom they thought was their sister.

Since I am the father of two young girls and also have two younger sisters, this entire sordid tale sickens and terrifies me to no end. Additionally, it has been reported that Garrido was known to park a short distance from middle schools and high schools and masturbate to the sight of the young girls that would enter the school. That type of information makes me pray to God that my girls are NEVER faced with a devil like that; both for their own safety and my freedom because I would go ballistic when I got my hands on that sicko.

Garrido is in custody now as is his wife, his long time accomplice. Dugard, now 29 and her girls have been reunited with their family who is still in absolute shock that she has returned alive and well after all these years. My hope is that Dugard and her children's' odyssey benefits others, especially potential future victims. Law enforcement needs to step up their efforts and refocus their procedures in dealing with these situations.

It'll keep our children safe and us concerned parents out of prison.