Deputies said a girl from Port Orange, Florida, texted 911 about a false claim that an armed man kidnapped her friend. (Screenshot: Volusia County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office)
Law enforcement set out Wednesday to find an armed man who kidnapped a 14-year-old girl — only to discover that there was no abduction. Authorities claim a 11-year-old girl texted in the false report to 911.
“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,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a statement to Facebook.
At 9:45 a.m., a dispatcher described getting a disturbing report about the abduction. The suspect purportedly drove a white van on South I-95 in the city of Oak Hill.
“The girl said her 14-year-old friend had been abducted and she was following in a blue Jeep,” deputes wrote.
The child allegedly texted updates for the next hour and a half. This included a description of the male suspect and a claim he had a gun.
“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,” deputies wrote.
Authorities tracked down the phone that texted 911, reaching a home in the city of Port Orange. The girl’s father told law enforcement that she was inside the house with the family.
According to deputies, the child told them she got had the idea to prank 911 through a YouTube challenge, and she thought it “would be funny.”
Authorities did not find it very amusing, as indicated in a brief body cam excerpt.
“I’m telling you this right now, you’re going to take this as a lesson at 11 years old that if you do something stupid in the future, you’re going to enjoy those cuffs,” one man told the child, whose face is blurred in the footage.
“I’m not going to do this again,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion.
“You know, this is going to be an opportunity for you to turn this into a learning experience,” an official said. “This is not something you’re going to carry with you for the rest of your life.”
More Law&Crime coverage: California mother who faked her own kidnapping in ‘awful hoax’ says the shame ‘feels like a life sentence’
The child is charged with making a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner, a felony, and misuse of 911, a misdemeanor, deputies said.
Authorities said they took her to the Family Resource Center for processing, and then the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
You can watch the video from the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, below.
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