FAYETTE COUNTY, Ky. — Megan Huffman said anyone that follows her knows she's an open book – sharing the fun milestones of her children and family, the places they go and the things they do.
That all changed when she got a terrifying phone call.
The phone call is the reason why Huffman said she has changed what she shares on social media, especially about her children.
In December, she answered a call from an unknown number thinking it was an Instacart shopper for the groceries she ordered.
“It was this man, this man who had been following my family, for it seems like quite a long time,” she explained. “And it wasn't completely random. I met him when I was 8 years old, he was an old neighbor, neighbor of mine. And I haven't had contact with him since then.”
She told 10TV that the man described in detail, photos of her two young children.
Huffman then searched his name online and discovered he is a registered sex offender.
“Never do you think like, just posting a simple picture can be dangerous, and it can be harmful to your family,” she said.
Huffman has asked us not to share his name or photo for her family’s safety if he were to be released from jail, again.
Huffman recently moved with her family from Pickerington back to her childhood town in Kentucky.
According to the Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry, the man who called Huffman was convicted on charges of sodomy and sex abuse – the victim: 3 years old. The case was from 2011, according to Fayette County Circuit Court.
In January, he was on sex offender conditional discharge, but committed a technical violation of failing to abide by the rules of the halfway house where he was residing, according to the Kentucky Department of Corrections. He returned to jail on Jan. 13.
It was right before that violation, in late December, when Huffman answered a call from a person claiming to be him.
“He had said that he had seen that we were doing well and that he knew I had kids and he had, you know, my pictures in his prison cell, and he's tried to contact me for the past couple years," Huffman explained. "And now that he's out, he was able to call. The phone calls kept coming, they kept coming and coming, and they didn't stop until we got the police involved.”
Huffman is sharing her story to warn other parents.
“You don't know who's lurking in the shadows, you don’t know who is looking at your stuff.”
She’s making the following changes on social media: not sharing her children’s faces, locations of photos, or even those milestone pictures from the first day of school.
Her hope is that her lesson helps parents protect their children online.
“He didn't come into our home. He came into our lives online and that is what is so scary.”