Dad Found A Sex Offender Hiding In His Daughter’s Bedroom, So He Brought Out The Duct Tape

A family from Stanislaus County may never be able to rest again after what 39-year-old Daniel Diaz is accused of doing. The man allegedly entered the family home and found the child’s bedroom, where he engaged in peeping on the little child. Fortunately, the child’s father caught Diaz in the act and was able to tackle him to the ground and restrain him with the help of duct tape while waiting for police officers to arrive and take him away.

Diaz happened to be a convicted sex offender and seemed intent on continuing his illegal behavior with the homeowner’s daughter. Fortunately, the dad caught Diaz prowling around the house on July 6, 2021, at about 5 am in the morning. Shortly after being spotted by the homeowner, Diaz broke into the daughter’s bedroom, who was just five years old. Fortunately, dad responded promptly and kept Diaz restrained until deputies were able to arrive and take over the situation.

“The father and other family members subdued this individual, and they detained him by duct-taping him,” Erich Layton, a public information officer for the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office, told Oxygen.com on Tuesday. “They duct-taped his hand and held onto him until law enforcement got there.”

Home security cameras caught the confrontation. Police reported that no one, including Diaz, was hurt during the altercation inside the home.

“Everybody is happy… the father, the family members, were aware and able to catch him before something did happen,” Layton added.

Diaz has a twisted history and is a known sex offender, according to law enforcement. He was convicted of assault with the intent to rape back in 2009. He targeted a victim that suffered from a developmental delay. He was sent to prison and was released in 2018.

“That’s very concerning, more so for [her] to be a child, and so young,” Layton said. “We don’t know his intent being in that house or in her room specifically. But we do the facts: He had a prior history of being in residence and sexually assaulting somebody — somewhere he didn’t belong. Your mind starts to go to those places with that history.”

Although Diaz was released from prison in 2018, he has not been reformed. He was convicted of battery on a custodial officer back in 2020 and has broken parole on several occasions.

“I was pretty scared because I thought the man would’ve taken and kidnapped her,” the girl’s mother, Martha Zepeda, told CBS Sacramento.

The mother confirmed that they first saw Diaz peeping into their five-year-old daughter’s room before he broke in with the intent to do something more.

“He went and knocked the door, he tried to open the door, peeking through the window, trying to see, and he was showing his private parts around the windows,” Zepeda told reporters via translation through her other daughter. “The man turned on the lights, and that’s when my sister woke up, and she got scared.”

Other people in the neighborhood were horrified that Diaz had picked their area for the attack.

“It’s really sad that people are outside doing things like that,” a neighbor named Erica told CBS Sacramento. “We’re girls, and we didn’t know if it was going to happen to us. It could’ve been us.”