GUILDERLAND — A registered sex offender was arrested after begging for money from motorists on Western Avenue.
John Haddock was ticketed on March 31 around 11:30 a.m. after an officer spotted him at the end of the Northway on Western Avenue with a sign that read, "Homeless need help, God bless," according to Guilderland Police.

Haddock is classified as a Level 3 sex offender, the top of three levels deemed by the state to be the most likely to re-offend.

Lieutenant Curtis Cox of the Guilderland Police Department said this week he was unaware of Haddock’s status as a sex offender, but said that investigators were handling his case.

Several times in the past, Haddock, 58, has been seen in the same area holding a sign and asking for money along busy Route 20 and Northway intersections. Haddock was arrested for similar incidents in April and June of 2003 and again in March of 2004, according to Guilderland Police reports covered earlier by The Enterprise. He was also once issued a ticket for using "a non-motorized vehicle on the highway."
"He was arrested down there a couple of years ago for the same thing," said Cox. "He took a couple of years off, if you know what I mean."
His signs in the past were also similar, stating that he was homeless and needed help and usually ending "God bless."

On March 22, 2004, Haddock was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender with the state’s Division of Criminal Justice Services. The charge is a felony offense.

A representative from the state’s sex offender registry confirmed for The Enterprise that Haddock is a Level 3 sex offender, and that he raped a woman in July of 1989.
"The offender grabbed a female adult that he was acquainted with by the neck and raped her," according to the DCJS.

Haddock’s recent arrest report says that he was born in Charleston, S.C., and describes him as a 6 foot, 2 inch black man who weighs 220 pounds and lives at the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany.
His occupation in the report is listed as "panhandler."

Haddock was charged on March 31 with loitering and begging, a violation, and was released on a ticket to appear at Guilderland Town Court, the report stated.

Cox said that there are no increased charges for repeat loitering. Each time Haddock violates the loitering and begging laws, he is charged separately and ticketed accordingly, said Cox.
"Mr. Haddock was asking for financial assistance," from passers-by, Cox told The Enterprise. "It’s a violation; it’s the same thing as gambling with dice or cards in a public place."

According to the town’s loitering laws, it is illegal to be in a public place with the express purpose of begging or asking for money.
Cox described the crime as "random," saying that he has seen it in other towns, too, but that it does not seem to be concentrated in any one area in Guilderland.
"We occasionally get them in town," he said of panhandlers.