Education

A Long Story

By Bryan Toporek — September 15, 2009 1 min read
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An 11-year-old student in Alabama came up with an elaborate kidnapping hoax last week in an effort to hide his bad report card from his parents, according to CNN.

The boy claimed that on Friday, a man in a beat-up red car kidnapped him at gunpoint and said, according to the local police department, “I’m going to take you somewhere and kill you.” The boy told police that he jumped from the car at that point, leaving his backpack behind in the car.

The truth was slightly less dramatic. “He got a bad report card,” Sgt. Mark Roberts of the Huntsville Police Department told CNN. “And he couldn’t figure out anyway to say his book bag was lost or stolen.”

Investigators found holes in the boy’s story upon interviewing him. While he reportedly couldn’t grab his backpack, he did retrieve a musical instrument from the car before jumping out.

On Monday, the child’s grandfather called the police department and revealed the details of his grandson’s elaborate hoax, saying the child had confessed to the family.

“I just hope children don’t do this too often because it does put us through quite a lot of man power,” Roberts said. “We gave (the investigation) the whole 9 yards.”

A version of this news article first appeared in the Web Watch blog.