The infamous house on Walnut street in Antioch where Jaycee Lee Dugard was held captive for almost two decades, has become a media fortress. Scores of TV satellite trucks and reporters from around the world have descended into the neighborhood. Amid the lurid and unseemly details that have emerged from the case, comes a more disheartening sidebar: some media outlets are paying for information in the kidnapping case.
When the story initially broke early last week, one of the very first neighbors to speak, Damon Robinson, spoke to reporters across a chain-link fence. Other reporters, including those from CNN and Fox News, waited to talk to him. One correspondent, from a London tabloid, offered Robinson $2000 for an "exclu." He accepted.
In the days since, local residents who knew Phillip Garrido, Dugard's alleged kidnapper, said they have been approached by reporters -- American and foreign, print,TV, and internet blogs -- who have offered thousands of dollars for information and pictures of the Garridos, Dugard, now 29, and the two daughters, fathered by Garrido.
Garrido's father, Manuel, who lives in Brentwood, said he received $2,000 from a media outlet. He added he would no longer speak to media outlets unless he were paid.
He told the L.A. Times: "From now on, it's going to be more than $2,000," he said. "You're making big stories, and you are getting paid for it. Here I am suffering, so I should get some money out of it."
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