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FARGO -- A Fargo family is hoping to get the word out after their 11-year-old son says a man followed him on his way home and tried to get him to get into his truck.
It happened on 20th Avenue South, near 17th Street South, not too far from Lewis & Clark Elementary.
The 11-year-old boy says a man offered him a ride home, and repeatedly tried to convince him to get in his truck.
The boy's family asked that we not identify him or show his face to protect his privacy.
"When he started following me, I got really scared," the boy said.
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The 11-year-old boy was on his way home from a friend's house Sunday evening, when a man pulled up next to him in a beat-up truck and asked if he wanted a ride.
"I said, 'no thanks,' it would take longer just to put my bike in the truck anyway," the boy told us.
The boy says instead of taking no for an answer, the man took a U-turn and came back.
"He asked two more times, and that's when I was like, he's obviously trying to do something else," the boy said.
The 11-year-old then made his way home by cutting through backyards, checking when he got to his house that no one had followed him.
"It's not like roller coaster scared, it's like, fear for your life scared," the boy told us.
It's not the first time a member of their family has had a brush with an abduction attempt.
8 years ago, their oldest daughter, a third grader at the time, had a similar experience.
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The man responsible ended up in jail.
"There is a grade school and a high school close to us, and a junior high not that far away. So, it might be kind of a natural place for these kind of predators to be looking for young kids," said the boy's father, Wes Henry.
Jennifer Henry posted about the abduction attempt on the Next Door App, trying to get the word out to the neighborhood.
Now, the family is asking others to talk to their children about strangers offering rides.
"Just call 911. That's okay, they're not going to get into trouble. Even if you think someone's trying to be nice, that's okay. You need to be safe," says Jennifer.
The suspect is described as a man in his 20s with very tanned skin.
He was driving a rusty silver Chevy Silverado with Minnesota license plates that had fast food bags on the dash.
The family asks anyone who has seen the vehicle, or had a similar experience, to report it to police.
