Registered Sex Offender Arrested, Accused of Harassing Lake Forest Teen

A 46-year-old transient who authorities say brought a frightened Lake Forest girl to tears by following her around a local grocery store is in jail after Orange County Sheriff's Department deputies arrested him Friday in Orange.

Police arrested Steven Neil Paff in his vehicle at about 5:30 p.m.; he has been charged with annoying/molesting a child under 18 years of age—a felony charge, due to prior convictions.

According to authorities, Paff began following a 13-year-old and her mother around inside the  on Town Centre Drive at about 7 p.m. July 5.

According to authorities, "They were talking to the cashier and he kind of joined in on the conversation," OCSD spokesman Jim Amormino said. But "they didn't think much of it."

The mother and daughter stopped next at the Ralphs supermarket on Portola Parkway, where the 13-year-old went inside the store alone to pick up some items. 

She noticed that Paff was at Ralphs as well but reportedly chalked it up to coincidence, Amormino said.

But when he began to follow her down each aisle through which she walked, the Lake Forest teen became frightened, Amormino said.

"She walked all the through the store trying to evade this guy," he said.

At one point, he tried to engage her in a conversation, according to Amormino.

The girl approached a female cashier and told her that she thought the man was following her. Agreeing, the cashier asked her male counterpart to walk the teen to her mother's car.

By the time she reached the car, she was "crying hysterically," Amormino said.

Her mother asked her to lock herself in the car, which she did, and entered the store to confront the man.

She asked him if he was following her daughter. The man immediately left the store, Amormino said, but the mother wrote down his license plate and reported the incident to the Sheriff's Department.

When the mother got home, she searched the Megan's Law website that lists information about registered sex offenders, until she found Paff, according to authorities.

Amormino said the mother searched through "hundreds of photos," from as far south as San Diego to as far north as Anaheim before finding the suspect's photograph.

Paff is a registered sex offender on active parole, which means he was wearing a GPS surveillance monitor on his ankle at the time of the incident, Amormino said.

Using the store surveillance tapes and the GPS monitor—which authorities say show that he was indeed at the 99 Cents Only and Ralphs stores at the time of the incident—deputies found Paff, Amormino said. Paff was arrested at about 5:30 p.m. Friday in his vehicle at 10 Plaza Square in Orange, Amormino said.

According to Megan's law, Paff has two prior convictions for annoying/molesting a child under 18 years of age and three for indecent exposure.