Lady, 11, arrested for falsely reporting good friend was kidnapped in YouTube problem

An 11-year-old Florida woman was arrested Wednesday after she falsely reported that her good friend was kidnaped by an armed man — a prank apparently impressed by a YouTube problem, authorities mentioned.

The kid mentioned she thought the texts to 911 “could be humorous” and claimed within the messages that her 14-year-old good friend had been kidnapped by a person driving a white van on I-95 in Oak Hill at about 9:45 a.m., the Volusia Sheriff’s Workplace mentioned.

She continued to textual content with an emergency dispatcher for the subsequent hour and a half main to an enormous police hunt for the van — which by no means exited — by land and air. The woman even gave an outline of the suspect and mentioned that he had a gun, the workplace mentioned.

Investigators, who did not find the van, tracked the cellphone sending the texts to a house in Port Orange.

At 10:23 a.m., deputies arrived on the home, spoke to the woman’s father and located her holding a cellphone that started ringing. When she answered, Volusia Sheriff’s Dispatch was on the road, the sheriff’s workplace mentioned.

The woman — whose title The Submit is withholding attributable to her age — advised deputies that she had gotten the thought to prank 911 by way of a YouTube problem.

The kid was handcuffed and charged with a felony depend of creating a false police report regarding using a firearm in a violent method and a misdemeanor depend of misuse of 911.

“This type of prank exercise is harmful – we’re going to analyze each incident however as we speak it wasted useful assets that may have helped another person who legitimately wanted our assist,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood mentioned in a press release.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Workplace launched a bodycam video of the arrest through which the woman’s face was blurred as her arms had been cuffed behind her again in entrance of her residence.

“I’m telling you this proper now — you’re gonna take this as a lesson at 11 years outdated that if you happen to do one thing silly sooner or later, you’re gonna get pleasure from these cuffs,” one man tells the emotional little one.

“I’m not going to do that once more,” she replies, whimpering.

It’s unclear if the person, who was not in uniform, is the woman’s father or an officer with the sheriff’s workplace.

“That is going to be a chance so that you can flip this right into a studying expertise,” a deputy tells the woman. “This isn’t one thing you’re going to hold with you for the remainder of your life.”

The younger woman was transported to the Household Useful resource Heart for processing, then transferred to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Heart, according to Fox 35 Orlando.

She was anticipated to spend Wednesday night time there till she will see a decide Thursday, Chitwood advised the native information station.

“She’s gotta be taught a useful lesson right here that you simply simply don’t do stuff like that. Hopefully, her little buddies and different mother and father will likely be like, ‘Oh my God. This isn’t humorous,’” he mentioned.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Workplace is internet hosting a sequence of group boards for folks to discover ways to shield their youngsters from dangers on-line and on social media all through August.