Newark Police responded Monday night to a reported kidnapping and robbery near Christina Mill apartment complex - and said it was investigating it as possibly linked to a string of similar incidents in New Castle County.
But Newark police now say they've deemed the report bogus after multiple agencies responded to the scene after multiple agencies responded to the scene before an overnight investigation ensued.
Newark Police Sgt. Gerald Bryda says the story didn’t hold up under scrutiny.
“An exhaustive overnight investigation by the Newark detectives determined that there were some inconsistencies in the series of events that were reported to us," Bryda said. "And we were able to later determine that the incident did not in fact occur and was falsely reported.”
The 23-year-old Newark woman who made the report was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with falsely reporting an incident - a misdemeanor offense.
“Punishable by fines, community service and also possibility of restitution to the responding police agencies for the cost of the investigative efforts," Bryda said.
New Castle County Police are still investigating three recent legitimate kidnapping cases - possibly linked to the same masked assailant.
According to New Castle County police, there’s no new information regarding those cases. One occurred last week, and the other two last month.
