By KRWG News
Las Cruces – A Las Cruces woman has been charged with one misdemeanor count of making a false police report after claiming last week that she and her 10-year-old son were kidnapped and being held against their will.
The 35-year-old woman, who is not being identified because she claims to be a victim in an unrelated incident, spoke by phone with a relative sometime after midnight on Nov. 19 and reported that she had been kidnapped by a man and was being held against her will. At around 1:15 a.m. last Thursday the relative called 911 to report the incident. Las Cruces Police began investigating the report, and looking for the woman and her son.
The woman claimed that she was tied up, with ropes around her neck, in the back of a sport utility vehicle that was being driven somewhere, possibly west toward Deming.
More than a dozen LCPD officers and detectives were deployed to look for the woman and surrounding law enforcement agencies were notified of the alleged kidnapping. The U.S. Border Patrol was contacted and a helicopter was launched to help search for the SUV that was allegedly being used.
Finally, at around 3:30 in the morning, police located the woman at a home off Walnut Street in Las Cruces. The woman and her son were fine and the kidnapping claim was determined to be a ruse.
The bogus kidnapping resembles a February 2006 report of a then 23-year-old Las Cruces man who claimed he was attacked late one night and was being held against his will. Several LCPD officers and two aircraft were utilized in the search for the man.
The search lasted several hours before the man was located and admitted to police that he fabricated the story so he could go partying instead of reporting for work that night.
In September 2006 the man plead guilty to making a false report. He was ordered by the court to pay more than $11,000 in restitution to the Las Cruces Police Department and close to $2,000 to his employer. The man is current on his monthly payments to LCPD.