FBI informant 'relieved' after helping take down 'monster' Jared Fogle

By The Wrap, TheWrap

August 22, 2015 at 2:37AM
In this May 28, 2014, file photo, Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle arrives at the world premiere of "Maleficent" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles.
FILE - In this May 28, 2014, file photo, Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle arrives at the world premiere of "Maleficent" at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

An informant who worked with the FBI for years to take down Subway's Jared Fogle opened up about his arrest on Thursday.

"I'm numb. I'm shocked. I'm relieved most of all," Rochelle Herman-Walrond told ABC7. She initially thought Fogle would be charged only for child pornography but wasn't surprised when he was also charged for "sex acts with children."

Herman-Walrond, a reporter who met the former Subway pitchman in the mid-2000s while covering a health event for a Florida TV station, later told CNN's Anderson Cooper that Fogle was so brazen that he once asked her to put cameras in her children's rooms so he could watch them.

"I had two young children at the time, and he talked to me about installing hidden cameras in their rooms and asked me if I would choose which child I would like him to watch," Herman told Cooper.

In initial conversations, he made inappropriate comments about middle school girls and detailed to her plans to arrange parties with children.

"He told me that he thought middle school girls were so hot," Herman told Cooper. "I was in shock … I actually was questioning, 'Did I really just hear what I think I heard?' I looked over at my cameraman … and he was just astounded."

Alarmed by what she was hearing, she told authorities, who then called on her to record their conversations. She worked with the FBI for years, wearing a wire during conversations with Fogle.

The former Subway spokesperson confided in her about his sexual fantasies, including intimacy with underage children. When she became concerned with why it was taking so long to arrest Fogle, she was told that a case of this size takes time to build.

"I'm really not surprised, why would I be the only one?" Herman-Walrond said about there being other women who Fogle spoke to who contacted authorities.

"He's a monster," she concluded.

Jared Fogle, left, made a court appearance earlier this month.
Jared Fogle, left, made a court appearance earlier this week. (Randy Salas/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

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