Need advice on protecting my family from someone before any crime is committed.

[fieldherper]

I've been living with my girlfriend and her two children in Illinois for almost six years. One of the children, now 6 years old, was adopted almost a year ago after we had fostered her for close to five years. She was 4 months old when we took her in.

Her father had his parental rights terminated as he has been in and out of prison for most of the little girls life. He's had multiple convictions for assault and battery (against women), as well as for drug and alcohol related charges.

After the adoption was finalized, we thought he would be out of the picture.

Over the past seven months, he has been making appearances in our lives again.

He's shown up at my girlfriends mothers house twice, asking about the child, always stating that "he's not trying to start any trouble." I also observed him slowly driving past our house one day, staring at it. It was him, I'm certain.

I don't think he's committing any crime, but seeing that he knows where we live and has time to drive by once in a while, he may know my work schedule (I work two jobs and am gone most of the time).

Although he's never approached me personally, I'm afraid he may try something one evening when I'm at work. With his criminal history I feel that my girlfriend and the children are at risk.

Is there anything I can do to prevent anything bad from happening with this guy? We can't afford to move at the moment and it will probably be at least a year or two before we will.

[Samuel]

Maybe he's intending something bad or maybe he's turned his life around and wants to be a good father. You need to articulate more on why you think something bad is going to happen...

[fieldherper]

I didn't think about it like that. I should have before I posted on here. Thanks.

[Samuel]

FWIW, it IS better to err on the side of caution. If things start going bad, look into getting a restraining order and taking various precautions to protect your family...

[qpd158]

Go to your county States Attorney Office, speak with the Juvenile Attorney that handled the adoption. If your county has such a person they can and probably will assist you in filing for an Order of Protection from this guy mainly on the child, but will protect the places the family goes.
May be a good idea to also call up the local police and have them try to find this guy and make sure he is aware that you have noticed him and that you don't want him around.
My wife and I are foster parents, and have 1 in our home that we hopefully will have adopted in the next month. Not so worried about the mom, but the dad is heading to Prison and when he gets out may try something, but don't think he will find me anyway.