For Kids

It’s best to be cautious and really get to know a person before you take things from them or believe what they say.

Just as fool’s gold is worth nothing, so lust masquerading as love exploits you. Just as Dr. Jekyll turned into the fiend Dr. Hyde, seemingly friendly Howard Ault turned into the rapist and murderer of 11-year-old DeAnn Jones and her sister.

The man walking the cute dogs may have said to 6-year-old Etan Patz, “Come to my house, and I’ll let you play with their puppies.” Etan may have been lured into a store or car to get candy. For the full story, go to the Abduction section. of this website.

Never get into a car with anyone, even someone you know, unless your parent said you could ride with that person that day. Never go with anyone just because he says your mom told him to pick you up, or just because he says your mother has been in an accident, and she asked him to bring you to the hospital where she is.

Ask your mother or daddy to give you a secret word if they want you ever to go with someone without their directly telling you it is OK to go with that person that day. If your parent is willing to risk it, he or she can select a word which the person has to give to let you know your parent is giving you permission to ride with that person. When Howard Ault offered 11-year-old DeAnn Jones and her beautiful younger sister Alicia a ride home, the best thing for them to have done would have been to say “no, thank you” and run straight home and tell their mother what happened.

For DeAnn’s full story and picture, go to the Abduction section of the jimmyryce.org website, and click on 11-year-old girl. Pretty, 6-year-old Morgan Nick may have gotten into the red pickup truck because the man ordered her to. Let your children know they do not have to get in a vehicle when an adult demands that they get in. Children should not get into a car unless at least one parent has said they may ride with that person that day. For Morgan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this website and click on 6-year-old girl.

Never go into anyone’s house unless your parent told you could go into that person’s house that day.

Once you’re in a closed place, it’s much harder to get out or to attract help. Even though 11-year-old DeAnn Jones and her younger sister Alicia thought Howard Ault was a family friend, they did not have their mother’s permission to go into his house that day to get leftover Halloween candy. Locked inside the well-insulated house, with people in nearby houses still at work, no one heard DeAnn’screams or her little sister Alicia’s sobs.

Big-eyed, 6-year-old Etan Patz either did not know or did not remember that he should never go in a store without his parent, even though he might know the owner. He may have forgotten that he should never visit a man’s apartment without his parent’s permission to visit that person that day. For Etan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this website, and click on 6-year-old boy.

Unless 6-year-old Etan Patz was immediately knocked unconscious as he walked the two blocks to his school bus stop, he should have had time to scream, “You are not my father! I don’t know you! Help, I’m being kidnapped!” With all his friends in the Soho stores and restaurants along the familiar route he had taken with his mother or father all the days of first grade prior to May 25th, surely someone would have come to his aid. If the man ordered him not to scream, he still should have screamed. If the man put his hand over Etan’s mouth, he should have bitten it and screamed as loud as he could. For Etan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this jimmyryce.org website and click on 6-year-old boy. If 6-year-old Morgan Nick had only screamed “Rape! Help me! You’re not my father! Stranger danger!” her mother or some of the other parents in the stands would have tried to get her away from the predator or, at the very least, would have been able to describe the man and the truck, maybe even get the license tag number so law enforcement with the public’s help could find Morgan. For Morgan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this website, and click on 6-year-old girl.

If someone is trying to force you into a car or drag you into a house or pull you away with them, fight to break free. Fight as hard as if your life depended on your getting away, as that may be what is at stake. The earlier in an attempted abduction you break free, the more likely you are going to be able to escape unscathed. If 10-year-old Staci Weinstein had bit John Pierson on the hand when he was pulling her up the steps to her bedroom, she would have had a better chance of running out the front door than she had when his weight was pinning her to the bed. Once both men were in her bedroom hitting her with their fists and the barrel of the gun, Staci was so hurt and dazed that she no longer could figure out how to escape. For Staci’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this jimmyryce.org website, and click on 10-year-old girl.

If someone is trying to pull you into a house or car or drag you into the bushes, as soon as you struggle free, run as fast as you can to the nearest safe place. You want to put as much distance as you can between yourself and the predator. Some safe places and safe people are your school crossing guard, your park counselor, a teacher, a church, Walmart, or other nearby busy businesses. What safe place would you run to if you were approached by a sexual predator as you were walking home from school or your school bus stop? However, you don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire by flying into the arms of another predator. If the predator is hot on your tail, you may have to risk going to the closest house even if you don’t know the people who live there. Look for a yard full of kids’ toys; a house with the lights on. If you are close to home, running there may be best. Just remember to lock the door behind you, and call 911 immediately and report the attempted abduction. If you know no adult is at your home, it might be better to go to a neighbor’s, and call law enforcement from there.

If you are going to pass a stopped car and someone is inside, move outside grabbing distance as you walk pass. If you are waiting at your school bus stop, watch the passing cars to see if the same car keeps coming back. If someone is trying to force you into a car, as you fight to get away, observe and remember what the man and the car look like so you can describe both to the police. Law enforcement will send patrol cars to the area and broadcast a Be on the Lookout. All children are safer when another sexual predator is caught and locked up.

Step back and away from any car stopping beside you or any parked car you are passing. Don’t let the person getting out of the car keep you rooted to the spot by engaging you in conversation. Maybe the adult’s behavior is innocent: they really want directions. However, when an adult behaves in an inappropriate manner, such as asking a kid for directions, you have the right to refuse to respond and to turn and run to the nearest safe place. Better safe than sorry. 6-year-old Morgan Nick may have made the mistake of stopping near the parked red truck to get the sand out of her shoes. She may even have leaned against the truck to take her shoe off to get the sand out. For Morgan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of the jimmyryce.org website, and click on 6-year-old girl.

All children need to be taught that they should tell if “someone touched me where my swimsuit covers.” If someone says or does anything that makes a child uncomfortable or ashamed, the child should tell an adult he trusts what happened. Usually you can trust your parents, but if one of them is the one who is making you uncomfortable or is sexually or physically abusing you, then, tell your teacher, your school counselor, your pastor or rabbi, someone in authority you trust. You can always call 911 and tell the police that you are being abused and need help.

Even if you only post a picture of yourself and identify what school you go to, sexual predators can go there and pick you out of the crowd and kidnap you as you are walking home. If the predator follows you home, he will know where you live. Go to the Attempted Abduction section and see how a teenager and his father tried to grab a girl they had identified through information she gave on the Internet about her being on the basketball team and their winning that week.

If someone tries to lure or force you into a car, tell an adult what just happened. It is calming to have the adult take over and get you medical attention or therapy and call 911 for you to report the attempted abduction. If your story gets in the media (without your name or address), you can share with other kids which of Jimmy Ryce’s Great Escape Maneuvers, Jimmy’s GEMs, you played to to escape. Teaching other kids what to do to escape may save them if ever they, like you, are confronted by a sexual predator.

It is not safe to walk alone to or from school or to or from the school bus stop. Remember what the bank robber said when he was asked why he robbed banks: “because that’s where the money is.” Similarly, the favorite hunting grounds for those who prey on children during the weekdays of the school year are school bus stops and sidewalks filled with children walking to and from school. If a parent cannot drive her/his child to school, the next best thing is for the parent to walk with the child to school or wait with the child at the school bus stop. If this is not possible, the parent should try to arrange, with or without pay, for a retired friend or neighbor to walk with the child to and from school or walk to and from the school bus stop with the child and wait with the child at the bus stop. Since there is some safety in numbers, your child’s walking with a group of children may protect the child from abduction. However, it is important that parents know that sometimes two or three kids are abducted at the same time. If a child is forced into a car at gunpoint while waiting with other kids for the school bus, the other kids can at least tell law enforcement the kid was kidnapped, and describe the car and the abductor. Seeing a child abducted is required in many states before an Amber Alert can be activated. 6-year-old Morgan Nick was not taken while she was playing with the other children in the sand near the baseball field. Morgan got separated from her play group when she stopped to get the sand out of her shoes on the way back to the stands where her mother was. For Morgan’s full story, go to the Abduction section of the jimmyryce.org website.

A Homestead, Florida minister saw two little girls stop to talk to a man in a car. When one of the girls got into the car, he went over to the car and asked the little girl if this man was her father. The girl said, “No, but he is with the pantie police and just wants to know what color my panties are.” Needless to say, the minister asked the little girl to get out of the car, took down the man’s license tag number and called 911 to report this attempted abduction to the police. A woman saw a little boy being dragged into a car. She picked up a stick and ran up to the struggling pair. She asked, “do you know this man?” The black child said, “no, I do not know this white man.” She beat the man off. The point is when you see what might be an attempted abduction, jump in and try to help the victim escape. For more true stories about kids, adults, family, neighbors, strangers who have jumped in and helped the victim of an attempted abduction escape, go to the Rescue and the Escape sections of this jimmyryce.org. website.

Kids as young as 2 are probably always going to chase after a ball thrown to them or go off with someone to see their puppy or to get an ice cream cone. So, you need to be super-vigilant with young children. Sure it’s natural to believe you can raise your children without personally having to watch them every minute, but what may have once been safe, no longer is. Parents or caretakers of a young child cannot afford to take their eyes off their children when they are playing in a public park or at the beach, because the children can be gone in the blink of an eye. Once taken, they may be no getting them back; they may be gone forever. Leaving a young child unsupervised is too high a risk to take. Go to the Abduction Danger section of this jimmyryce.org website, to find out how big a threat sexual predators pose to your child.

Almost the only thing the police know for sure when there is a predatory abduction is what the child looks like. This is not surprising when you think about it. Predators want to get away unseen. They look for children alone. They move in for the grab when no one is in sight. Practically the only way a child abducted more than a few days is ever going to get home is by someone, like you, spotting the child and calling the F.B.I. to report the child’s whereabouts. The more specific you are about where you saw the child, the more likely it is the police will find the child. Get all or part of the tag number of the car you saw the child in. Note which street number was nearest where you saw the child and the man eating. Of course, even reporting what city you believe you saw the child in may help. The more eyes looking for a child, the more likely it is someone will spot the child. Look closely at the child’s jaw and ears as these are usually the most recognizable features. If everyone would pick out each month one missing child to look for as if the child were their own, more missing children would be found. Adopt one missing kid a month, by looking for the child as if the child were your own.

Remember the trail of little white stones Hansel and Gretel left to show them the way back out of the woods? Did you know you leave a scent trail which a bloodhound can follow to find you? Every person has a unique scent, even identical twins. You give off millions of scent rafts a minute. A well trained, scent-discriminating bloodhound can as easily follow scent pouring out of an open car window as people can follow footprints in wet sand. If 6-year-old Morgan Nick had rolled down the window of the red truck she was carried away in, millions of her scent rafts would have poured out. Morgan also could have dropped at turnings things with her scent on them–her bracelet, shoe, barrette, anything she was wearing to let the searchers following the dog team know they are on the right track. Go to the Escape section of this jimmyryce.org website. There you will find true stories of kids in every state who have escaped from sexual predators. All attempted abductions are success stories. The children escape by playing one or more of Jimmy Ryce’s Great Escape Maneuvers, Jimmy’s GEMs.

If you are home alone and someone knocks, don’t open the locked door to anyone except immediate family members. 10-year-old Staci Weinstein should have called 911 and said she was home alone and two Stanley Steemer men were trying to get in, instead of opening the door and letting the men in. For Staci’s full story, go to the Abduction section of this jimmyryce.org website.

It is important to put the community on notice when there is an attempted abduction. A sexual predator who fails to seduce or abduct one child is likely to keep trying until he succeeds in taking a child. If law enforcement is called immediately, police cars patrolling the area, armed with the victim’s description of the vehicle, may spot the car and stop it. If the predator looks like the victim described him, the victim can be brought for a line-up. The victim can work with police artists to make a composite of the predator. When this is released to the media, the whole public can help identify who the predator is. Through the leads generated in this manner, many a predator has been caught and locked up. For true stories about catching sexual predators, go to the Catch section and the Lock Up section of this jimmyryce.org. website.

If someone asks a kid for directions, report it to law enforcement. Sure it might be somebody thinking the kid might know where the Jones live. But it also might be a way to get the child close enough to the car to grab the child. Why should the child take the risk that the inappropriate adult behavior is innocent? It is not worth risking your life, liberty, and happiness. If someone is taking pictures of children at the park or the community pool, report it to the police or sheriff. If someone is handing out candy to kids, report it. If it is truly innocent behavior, the person should not mind being questioned about it. If it is predatory behavior, you may have helped get a sexual predator of the streets before he could assault and exploit another child.

The only surefire way to keep children safe from sexual predators is to keep identify and lock sexual predators away from their potential victims for as long as they legally can be locked up. Therefore, it is up to parents to make sure laws are passed making mandatory prison terms longer for the sexual assault of children and authorizing the involuntary civil commitment of the worst sexual predators after they serve their prison time. The Jimmy Ryce Involuntary Civil Commitment Act of 1998 authorizes Florida to lock up in a mental institution for treatment convicted sexual predators who are about to be released after serving their penal sentence, provided the state shows, by clear and convincing evidence, that the sexual predator has a personality disorder which makes him/her unable or unwilling to control the urge to have sex with children or force sex on anyone. Being a pedophile, a sadist, or a psychopath are personality disorders which qualify for civil commitment, even if the felons convicted of the sexual assault are not insane, as long as they are found by a jury highly likely to rape or kill others if released from secured confinement. It is similar to a public safety quarantine.