PORT ORANGE, FL– An 11-year-old Florida girl has been taken into custody after she called the police and pretended that her friend had been kidnapped.
The child called dispatch around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday and told authorities that her 14-year-old friend was taken by an armed man in a white van on South I-95 and that she was following them in a blue jeep.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, Edgewater Police, New Smyrna Beach Police, and the Port Orange Police departments all responded to the call in an effort to locate the “missing teen.”
Authorities say for the next hour, the 11-year-old proceeded to provide them with text updates on the situation and more information about the “kidnapper.”
Investigators then decided to trace the origin of the phone call and found that it came from a home on Poppy Lane. When authorities went to the home, they made contact with the child’s father who informed them that his daughter was inside the home with other family members.
Authorities were able to speak to the child, who then told them that the whole ordeal was a prank that she saw on YouTube and thought would be funny to mimic.
“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,” said Sheriff Mike Chitwood.
The child was charged with making a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner and misuse of 911.
She was taken to the Family Resource Center for processing and then transferred to Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.