An 11-year-old Florida girl was arrested Wednesday for phoning in a prank kidnapping report to police, just days after an Alabama woman admitted to crafting her own abduction hoax.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said the girl was charged with a felony of making a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner and a misdemeanor of misuse of 911.
Authorities said the girl first texted dispatchers that her 14-year-old friend was kidnapped by an armed man in a white van around 9:45 a.m.
The girl told police the imaginary suspect was driving south on Interstate 95 in Oak Hill and she was following close behind in a blue Jeep. Her regular updates via text caused a massive — yet fruitless — search for the abductor.
“Multiple deputies responded, along with Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach and Port Orange police and Air One, to search for the suspect vehicle, but no van was found,” the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities said they traced her phone to a home in Port Orange, where they arrived around 10:20 a.m. They spoke with the girl’s father, who said she was inside the house.
Deputies confronted the girl while she was receiving a call from the Volusia sheriff’s dispatch, which confirmed that authorities had found the source of the kidnapping report.
The girl told responding deputies that she learned about the 911 prank from YouTube and thought it “would be funny.”
“This kind of prank activity is dangerous. We’re going to investigate every incident, but today it wasted valuable resources that might have helped someone else who legitimately needed our help,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood said.
The preteen’s prank call came after an attorney for Carlee Russell admitted Monday that the Alabama woman spun a tall tale about her own abduction this month — which could also result in criminal charges.
Ms. Russell originally called 911 on July 13 saying she saw a toddler walking alone on the side of the interstate near Birmingham.
The 25-year-old then vanished, becoming a national news story in the process.
Ms. Russell returned home two days later. She said she was forced into the back of a tractor-trailer and held captive for two days before making her escape.
Authorities in Hoover, Alabama, questioned Ms. Russell’s story after phone records revealed she looked up a movie about a woman’s abduction and researched one-way bus tickets to Nashville, Tennessee.
Her attorney came clean on her behalf this week.
AL.com reported that Ms. Russell could face charges of false reporting to law enforcement authorities or falsely reporting an incident — both of which are misdemeanors.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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