Homeless Greg

[simply1]

Just curious if anyone living in West Des Moines had heard of this guy.

‘Homeless Greg’ was a mentor to local teens. Then he was unmasked

For 30 years, parents and children alike trusted the strange man who lived in the woods offering drink, drugs and life advice. They had no idea what he had done

www.thetimes.com

Hartleroad, 71, had been wanted by authorities in Wisconsin since 1994, when he escaped from a halfway house while serving probation on a sentence for raping a woman a decade earlier.


In West Des Moines, Hartleroad had always been known as “Homeless Greg”, a local celebrity who lived in a wooded area behind the railroad tracks.

 

[simply1]

 

[Turn2]

Reminds me of…

Ex-University of Iowa IT worker admits he lived under stolen name for decades, faces prison

A California man spent two years in jail, mental hospital after insisting another man was using his name. An Iowa detective exposed the real fraudster.

www.desmoinesregister.com

 

[AllInForISU]

Parents dropped their kids there to hangout? What in the….

 

[Cycsk]

No photos of his campsite? Thought maybe I could pick up a few tips for my tailgate.

 

[AuH2O]

A lot of wild stuff in that story.

- Based on the savagery of the case, how the **** does he get paroled after 5 years.
- For the same reason, it’s shocking he didn’t commit more crimes, as far as we know
- Who in the **** are these parents dropping their kids off? Just play out the basic, objective probabilities of things that could happen to a kid at a homeless camp.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Weird AF.

 

[BryceC]

Parents dropped their kids there to hangout? What in the….

It appears we now have two groups of parents. The ones who hover over their kids at the playground and the ones who drop their kids off at homeless camps.

 

[Cyientist]

Wait, no light reflectors on his bike is what got him busted? It never would have guessed that they would run someone’s name for that.

 

[FerShizzle]

It appears we now have two groups of parents. The ones who hover over their kids at the playground and the ones who drop their kids off at homeless camps.

Don't forget about the parents who are inside working from home and peak out the window once an hour to make sure they are still there.

 

[BryceC]

Don't forget about the parents who are inside working from home and peak out the window once an hour to make sure they are still there.

That’s the dream right there. Basically what my parents did with me in the summer.

 

[CoachHines3]

 

[Turn2]

And this is how far from the site of Ashley Okland's murder?

 

[intrepid27]

Wait, no light reflectors on his bike is what got him busted? It never would have guessed that they would run someone’s name for that.

They are on the same plan as the Marion , IA police. Pull someone over for a BS reason and then try to find something more significant. I know several people in Marion who have gotten pulled over because their license plate holder was covering up the county name and ended up with more serious offenses.

 

[CYdTracked]

Wait, no light reflectors on his bike is what got him busted? It never would have guessed that they would run someone’s name for that.

I don't think the cop was out of bounds for confronting him, he even said he wasn't going to write a ticket for it he just wanted to make him aware of the missing reflector in case someone hit him he wouldn't be liable for a technicality. I don't know if there was something else suspicious going on that maybe led to the stop or the need to identify him but once he provided a false name that pretty much gave them reason to look into him more.

Honestly, I'm glad this chance event led into bringing him in though. Scary to think people were that trusting of him knowing what we know now. Hopefully all the years he's been on the run he doesn't have more victims that haven't been reported or discovered yet.

 

[JP4CY]

What are the chances that his family had zero contact with him all these years?

 

[NoCreativity]

Wait, no light reflectors on his bike is what got him busted? It never would have guessed that they would run someone’s name for that.

It's West Des Moines, not exactly a crime hot spot. Cops were probably tired of busting people for not having swim diapers on their kids at the splash pads so they decided to start checking bikes.

 

[CascadeClone]

A lot of wild stuff in that story.

- Based on the savagery of the case, how the **** does he get paroled after 5 years.
- For the same reason, it’s shocking he didn’t commit more crimes, as far as we know
- Who in the **** are these parents dropping their kids off? Just play out the basic, objective probabilities of things that could happen to a kid at a homeless camp.

GF watches a lot of true crime stuff, and it is absolutely SHOCKING how often someone commits a horribly violent, premeditated crime, against a HELPLESS individual (elderly, kid, animal) and gets next to no time in prison.

Half the shows start off with "he had only been released for 60 days after serving 3 years for rape, kidnapping, and/or attempted murder" and then goes off and kills someone else. How do you serve only 3 years for those types of crimes???

 

[baller21]

Pshh must be a B list celebrity, I’ve never heard of him.

 

[cycub51]

This is what I came to this thread to see!