One woman found a way to get authorities to find her stolen car faster: Telling police her daughter was kidnapped inside the vehicle.
Jessica Pickett of Columbus, Ohio, told police that her car had been stolen with her 4-year-old daughter inside, triggering an Amber Alert and a quick search for the vehicle. When police found the car Monday, the girl was not inside, and was actually safe at her aunt’s house, NBC 4 Columbus reports.
Pickett allegedly told detectives that her daughter was in the car because “she wanted them to find her car faster,” Columbus Police Sergeant Terry McConnell told NBC 4.
“We were able to determine that the child never was with the mother. She was at another location safe,” McConnell said. Pickett is being charged with misdemeanor falsification.
Pickett reported her car was stolen after she left it idling near Ohio State University Monday morning. Pickett called 911 and told dispatchers that “I want to report somebody stole my car. Ma’am he just stole my car.”
Pickett allegedly told police that she had started her vehicle and left her daughter, Janylia Fails, inside the idling car while she went inside her home to get another child.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert and found the car a few hours later, but Pickett’s daughter was not inside. An anonymous caller later responded to the Amber Alert and revealed that Fails was safe. “I am trying to call in about that Amber Alert,” the caller said. “She is not missing. She is at her Aunt’s house.”
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