Child Predators Are in Your Neighborhoods, Maybe Even Right Next Door

When we moved to our new home, we thought we had checked into everything. All the important stuff was covered. The local school system, how far is it to work, the taxes and the general quality of the neighborhood. We realized very quickly that we had forgotten to look for one key ingredient. the one thing we absolutely could not afford to miss. Child Predators.

Everything was great in the new house, the kids made friends quickly. Our house became the sleepover hot spot. Not a weekend went by that there weren't kids crashing at our house for the night, sometimes even the weekend. It was, as they say, "the way it's supposed to be".

My wife and I have always wanted to be the cool parent's. Not so cool that we didn't provide a disciplined household, that would raise well behaved, respectful children. We believe that we have accomplished our goal so far. It was a great place to live with little of the problems we encountered in our previous home.

Things started changing around Halloween last year. A few day's before the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, hit television, and the kids get dressed up to bombard neighborhood houses for free candy, these little red flags started going up. Now, I don't mean little red flags in the proverbial sense, I mean actual little red flags started appearing in yards throughout the very large subdivision that we lived in. I had no clue what these were for. Then a flier was delivered to our door, by a local residents group. On this flier contained the information regarding those little red flags, and the purpose that they served. They were placed on the lawns of those people who are on the registered sex offenders list. To let parent's know where the wolves were hiding. To keep the children away from the doors of the sickos that lived right beside them. How easy it would be for a Predator to snatch a child that walked right up to their door.

I was in total disbelief, not only because the nearest red flag was only 2 doors away, but that there were So many Red Flags in the first place. I was given a website to check for the local registered sex offender's list. See it here: http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/Search.jsp .

After searching the database using a five mile radius from my home I came up with 49 names and pictures. 49. The closest was not only a convicted sex offender but also listed as a Child Predator. He lived two doors away. He had been in my house, attended a resident barbecue that was thrown. His name is John T, Farrel, His name is a matter of public record so I have every right to list him here. This is his address:

1803 PINE TREE DR,
EDGEWATER
FL 32132 - 3232

That is also a matter of public record.

Within a 5 mile radius of my home there were 49 convicted sex offenders listed, in my neighborhood alone. I decided that I needed to check both of my brother's addresses and came up with 97 within five miles of their houses combined. Both of my brother's also have children.

There are specific rules in place that allow us to know where they are living. They have to register as sex offenders when they move to a new area. That of course does not mean that they do. 26% of convicted sex offender's whereabouts are not known at this time in the state of Florida. That means that there are potentially 12.74 more predator's in my area that I do not even know about. if those numbers are correct then I have approximately 61 in a five mile radius.

On Dec, 13th 2006 while playing with a group of friends, That included 3 boy's and 2 girls, ranging in age from 10 to 13 years old, A man and woman attempted to abduct my 12 year old daughter. To her credit she did exactly what she has been taught to do. Never ever let them get you in the car. We pounded this into all of our children's heads. We told them if they get you in the car you are dead. I know that is harsh to tell an 8 year old but that is the reality. If they get you in the car ( in this case a truck) that you are probably going to die.

She fought and kicked and SCREAMED for all that she was worth. This was happening in broad daylight, In the middle of the afternoon. With people outside watering their lawns, mowing their grass, taking out the trash. Broad daylight in an affluent neighborhood. There is NO safe haven. They are everywhere.

She wrestled her way free of the man and she ran for everything she was worth. And even though she was screaming and people were looking, the man chased her. A neighbor living on the corner saw the whole thing going down, he lept his fence and tried to place himself between my daughter and the man chasing her.The guy saw an adult coming and turned to run the other way, he jumped in the back of the pickup truck and the woman driving sped away. The tag number was never seen. It is all chaos and the last thing you think to do is get a tag number in that situation.

I was on the interstate when I got the call. I had really bad reception and I could barely make out my hysterical wife's voice. All I heard was "man grabbed my daughter and white truck". I do not wish that any parent have to know what that feeling is. There is no way to describe it so I wont try. The Only thing I can say is that your world stops moving.

We are truly lucky. The problem with teaching children what to do is that you can't really know what their reaction is going to be. More often then not they freeze. I can understand that. What would your children do? Do you know for sure? We all believe that they will fight and they will scream, but that is not the way it is. If that was the case then this type of thing wouldn't happen as much. Or at least they would get away more then they get taken. Fear Will make you forget your own name , let alone what you have been taught to do in a situation like this. We are lucky. We know we are lucky. Thank God we got lucky.

The people in the truck were never caught. The police had choppers in the air and every officer in the city was in that neighborhood in less then 3 minutes. Somehow they got out of there and eluded the police. We hope that they got scared enough to not attempt something like this. I think if you are crazy enough to try it in the first place that chances are you aren't going to be that worried about it. I feel like they are still hunting. Hunting is what predators do.

The fact is that these people are everywhere. They ARE your neighbors, They ARE your co-workers, They ARE in the grocery store check out line right behind you. They might even be coming to barbecue's at your house. They are riding around looking at our children through the eye's of a hungry wolf. As scary as this is, it is a fact. Someone today was looking at your kids, they were having disgusting, horrible thoughts, thoughts that would both sicken and enrage you. Those are the facts. As bad as it sounds, that is what is going on. If you don't believe me check your local sex offenders database. They are easy to find just Google sex offender's in your state.

What can we do about this? There's really not much we can do actually. Unfortunately these people have the right to live in our neighborhoods. They have the right to stare at our children. The same laws that protect us, protect them. Our only weapon is knowledge. Knowledge of there whereabouts and knowledge of their habits.

How we use the knowledge is the difference for our children becoming the next victim for these people.

Find Your Local Predators using these links:

http://www.nsopr.gov/

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/cac/registry.htm

http://www.familywatchdog.us/

Knowing where these people are and what they look like is a big step in educating your children, Start today. Teach your children that their are evil people out there. I know it is scary for them, but if we have to keep them scared to keep them alive then that's what we do. Fear is a powerful motivator, sometimes being scared will be the difference between life and death.

God bless all of our children, protect and keep them, and bring forth the proper judgment on those that mean to harm them.
Rodney Reed