Woman falsely reports child's kidnapping to get police to respond to her stolen car faster, HPD says
Police said there was no kidnapping and no child.
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A 42-year-old woman was put in handcuffs on Thanksgiving after police say she told officers her child was kidnapped while she was inside a northwest Houston CVS.
The woman, who police haven't named, initially called 911 to report her car stolen.
According to the Houston Police Department, she called again about an hour and a half later and said her 14-year-old was inside the car.
Police responded shortly after and determined she was lying after talking with her family.
"After talking to the relatives who reported the car stolen, we found the 14-year-old was actually a 30-year-old and was not inside of the car," HPD Lt. Larry Crowson said.
Crowson added that the woman took her cousin's name and said she was 14 years old to get police to arrive faster.
ABC13 spoke with the woman on the scene who didn't want to talk on camera before officers took her into custody.
Police said she was recently let out of jail.
She told ABC13 it was actually her deaf niece who was inside the car when it was stolen.
The woman said she left her car running when she went inside the store.
HPD has multiple tiers for assigning officers to calls based on importance.
A Houston Chronicle investigation found the wait time for lower-level calls significantly increased.
Crowson said HPD operates with fewer officers on Thanksgiving and calls like this can take attention away from real emergencies.
As of late Thursday night, police have not said whether they located her car.
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