ROCKINGHAM — A convicted sex offender was reportedly caught hiding in a vehicle at a local elementary school.
Deputies allege that 37-year-old Michael Wayne Cox had been wanted since March on an outstanding warrant for failing to return a verification form or notice to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
That warrant, charging Cox with failing to register as a sex offender, was issued March 17.
According to another warrant, Cox was located Oct. 15 inside a vehicle in the parking lot of West Rockingham Elementary School.
Cox was allegedly in the backseat of the vehicle with a sheet over the rear passenger-side window “to hide himself.”
Cox was arrested on the outstanding warrant, and charged with being a sex offender on child premises.
He was booked into the Richmond County Jail where he is being held on a combined $50,000 secured bond. Cox is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 29.
According to records with the N.C. Department of Adult Correction, Cox was convicted in 2016 on five counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.
Records with the N.C. Sex Offender Registry show that Cox was 23 at the time of the abuse in 2012, and the victim was 9.
The Sex Offender Registry lists his address as unknown. The arrest warrants list his address as Sycamore Lane in Rockingham.
Cox was previously convicted of failing to notify a change of address as a sex offender in 2021 and 2022, and of being a sex offender on child premises in 2024.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
