Twenty years ago, a stranger grabbed Terry Brewer Jr. as he took the five-minute walk from elementary school to his grandmother's house.
Police found the 7-year-old boy within 24 hours. He had been sexually abused.
A year after the crime, Brewer saw the man who abducted him in a Fort Lauderdale grocery store, close to where he was kidnapped. He identified James M. Boyd to police.
Boyd was eventually convicted of sexual battery and kidnapping, among other related charges, and was sentenced to life in prison.
Brewer's mother, Shelby Herring, recalled the incident on Saturday during a forum on sexual offenders and predators in the 33311 Zip code.
About 60 people attended the forum at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center near Fort Lauderdale.
Today, Brewer, 27, and his mother are working to create a non-profit agency that would prevent similar crimes from happening to other children.
''When something like that happens, you suffer silently,'' said Herring, 50, who until five years ago could not talk about the incident without crying.
``I don't want other parents to have to go through that. It's damaging forever.''
The forum grew out of a South Florida Sun-Sentinel report in May that said the 33311 ZIP code had the highest number of offenders and predators -- 125 -- in Florida.
A Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman could not confirm the report.
On Saturday, the FDLE website listed 124 offenders and predators living in the ZIP code. That includes 26 people convicted of sex crimes whose last known address was listed in the ZIP code, but whose whereabouts are unknown.
The total number of offenders and predators often fluctuates, officials said.
The 33311 ZIP code includes parts of Fort Lauderdale, Plantation, Lauderhill, Lauderdale Lakes, Oakland Park and Wilton Manors, and eight unincorporated areas.
About 30 percent of the area's residents live below the poverty level, according to figures from the Urban League of Broward County.
The issue of sex offenders garnered national attention after several cases in which child abusers were released, and committed the same crimes -- or worse.
In Homosassa Springs, convicted sex offender John Couey was charged with the murder, rape and kidnapping of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Couey, who confessed to burying Jessica alive and conscious in garbage bags, did not register as a sex offender when he moved into a home less than a block from the Lunsford home.
Jessica's body was discovered on March 19.
Mark Lunsford, Jessica's father, planned to attend Saturday's forum, but was still two hours away when it ended, according to his attorney, Herbert Cohen.
''The most important thing is to get information to people about these folks that are in the community,'' said U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, adding that it is important to get them the treatment they need.
Hastings organized the forum with the Urban League and Mount Hermon A.M.E. Church in Fort Lauderdale.
Several towns, including Davie, Dania Beach and Miami Beach, have taken steps to tighten restrictions on where sex offenders can live.
The Broward Sheriff's Office notifies residents when sexual predators move into their neighborhoods, said Det. Sgt. Edward T. Sileo, whose unit monitors sexual offenders after they are released.
BSO does not notify residents when sexual offenders move in, however.
A sexual offender generally has been convicted of only one felony sex crime; a sexual predator has been convicted of two or more felony sex crimes.
Most sexual offenses are committed by people who know the victims, Sileo said.
He added that although abductions by strangers are rare, parents must still teach their children to be as ''rude as possible'' if someone tries to grab them.
''They always have their feet and they can run,'' he said. ``They always have their voice and they can scream.''
Germaine Smith-Baugh, a Lauderhill parent and the Urban League's senior vice president of programs, said she teaches her 2-year-old son, Allan about his private parts and what is off limits.
''Children need to understand that there are boundaries,'' she said.
