Stocky, balding with short gray hair, using words too salty for a family newspaper, Glenn Jenkins looks and sounds like what he is — a man plum out of patience. Jenkins, owner of Mercantile Antiques and Collectibles on East Main Street, is angry. And he’s not the sort to hide it, or back down from a fight. All Jenkins needs to do to rekindle his fury is look out his front windows at the registered sexual offenders (RSOs) walking about on East Main, in the B Street Plaza and elsewhere. Eight of them live in the Heritage Building Apartments, next to the Plaza above the Home Plate Pub. Just around the corner, in the old JC Penney building, several RSOs live near a children’s dance studio. The King County Sheriff has posted their names, faces and offenses for everyone to see on its Web site. They vary in type and severity of crimes, from Level 1 to Level 3, Level 3s being those most likely to reoffend. Some of the crimes have involved children, but the RSOs have completed their sentences and are free and not on probation. Jenkins was shocked last fall when he learned how many of them were downtown, only 2 1/2 blocks from Washington Elementary School. He said there are more than 40 of them living within a two-mile radius of downtown. Why, he wonders, did no one bother to post written notices or inform the people who work or live downtown? Jenkins said he has urged Mayor Pete Lewis and Auburn police many times to do something not only about the RSOs, but about drug users and pushers he says drive away business. But the efforts, he said, have gotten him nowhere. Last week, Jenkins took matters into his own hands. He plastered the RSO faces on his windows. He distributed fliers through downtown. He hung a sign above his store with the message, “Let’s take back Auburn.” Jenkins said he’s mad enough to seek the mayor’s impeachment. He’s upset at how long it takes police to respond and wants Chief Jim Kelly fired. He said the last straw was the thief who walked into his store recently and the 20 minutes it took for the police to arrive, 20 minutes he said he’d spent sitting on the thief, waiting for police. “I’m fed up. I told an officer on the phone, ‘Look, you take care of the druggies and thieves, and I will take care of the pedophiles and the (RSOs) who live in the apartments, I will take care of every one of them. I’ve already got rid of three of them.’ ” Jenkins said. “I also told the officer on the phone, ‘If you get a call, and I’m involved, take us both in. Whoever I’m with, just tell everybody in there that I just caught one of these guys with a 3-year-old out in the middle of the street, and I thumped his butt.’ I will start weeding it out, physically. Other than that I can’t tell you, but by one by one.” Cheryl Creson, owner of Creson’s Barber Shop at 222 E. Main St., had an encounter with one of these men. He was standing on the second-floor landing in the Arcade and masturbating as he stared at her. “We called the police three times, and they wouldn’t even send an officer over. They didn’t look for him, they didn’t do anything,” Creson said, adding that the officer told her that because the man’s private parts were so small that she couldn’t see them, police couldn’t do anything. “I know that there have been problems in the Arcade previously,” said Margaret Hansen, owner of Love Travel at 218 E. Main St. “It has caused people who arrive here early in the morning to lock the back door, and I don’t blame them. This doesn’t do anything to help the downtown, which needs all the help it can get.” Auburn Police Sgt. James Nordenger sympathizes, but he said there’s not much police can do. “We cannot tell RSOs — whether registered sex offenders or kidnap offenders — where to live,” Nordenger said. “It’s plain and simple. We keep good address verifications and checks on these offenders to try to ensure the best quality of life for people in the city of Auburn. There’s not really a lot we can do unless they are committing a law violation. Just being there is not a crime.” When sexual offenders are done with their incarcerations, they have to register as sex offenders with the King County Sheriff’s office, where they fill out some paperwork and get their picture taken. If the RSOs choose to live within the city limits, the City is notified. Once they come out into the community, some have placement restrictions that require them to notify their community corrections officers through the Department of Corrections. The DOC may approve or disapprove of where they want them to live, but the police have no say. “We are limited to checking on their verifications, and we do more verifications than the state mandates just to ensure those people are in compliance with their address,” said Nordenger. Nordenger said the Auburn Police Department keeps books that the general public may view at any time, filled with level ones, twos and threes, and kidnappers. “With level 1s, the least likely to offend, we won’t notify the public, but we’ll have their picture available for them,” Nordenger said. “Level 2s, we do notify by mailings, and Level 3 we do mailings and neighborhood meetings with those people around the area where they live.” Beef is with owner Michael Hursh, director of Community Services for the City of Auburn, said Jenkins’ beef should not be with the City at all, but with the Department of Corrections and the owner of the Heritage Apartments, Jack Langeloh. “There are apartment complexes that identify themselves officially or unofficially as willing to take folks with this kind of background,” Hursh said. “Whenever that happens, whether by word of mouth or officially, they end up on a list of suggested reentry locations for people exiting incarceration that are then made known to parole and probation officers within the Department of Corrections. The DOC is regularly at the Heritage doing parole checks. Auburn Police are often there with the DOC. Sound Mental Health provides some services, but at this time they are only providing services to three residents. The owner has made the decision that they are going to take the money from these folks and house them there. And it’s a risk.” Hursh said there’s not a lot that the City can do, other than strongly encourage people to be good property owners and consider the effect on the community of having sexual offenders living so close to an elementary school. “The apartment owner made a connection with the State Department of Corrections and made it very well known that this is a place they could have people,” said Mayor Lewis. “And we’ve been saying, ‘You might have that ability, stop doing it. There’s no reason you should be concentrating in one community.’ Their response to us is ‘Thank you for your input,’ and nothing else. That’s why I’m torn on this. I don’t like how this affects economic development, but I really am offended by the dumping.” Calls to the Department of Corrections were not returned in time for this article. The only phone number on file for Langeloh at the City is at the Heritage Apartments, but the number is not in service. A Google search lists two addresses for him, one in Seattle, one in Bellevue. The property management company is Tetra Properties, Inc. “They’ve been in those apartments for a very long time, they’ve served their time, so there’s not really much I can say,” said apartment manager Omar Amezzua. “Whatever (Jenkins) wants to say is his own business, and I have nothing more to say about that.” Some business owners who did not want their names used said Jenkins is going about this the wrong way, that with the downtown hurting, now is not the time to scare away the public. “It’s an unorthodox methodology, but Glenn wants to increase business in Auburn and has a more intrinsic reason for doing this, and that is to create a clean crime free downtown,” said John Rottle, director of operations for Rottles Apparel and Shoes at 226 E. Main St. “I’ve had complaints from my tenants next door that people float in and out and do very compromising things and shouldn’t be here.” “All I want to know is why do we have to be the dumping grounds,” Jenkins said.