An 11-year-old Florida girl is facing felony charges after police claim she made a false kidnapping report on July 26 in an attempt to be funny.
The girl was arrested and charged with a felony of filing a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a violent manner and a misdemeanor of misusing of 911, after she falsely reported to law enforcement officials that her 14-year-old friend had been abducted, a release from the Volusia Sheriff’s Office stated.
At approximately 9:45 a.m. Wednesday morning, Langone allegedly texted 911 claiming that an armed male driving a white van on I-95 had abducted her friend and that she was driving a blue Jeep in pursuit. Multiple law enforcement officials responded to the report and for the next hour and a half, Langone reportedly texted updates to police, including a description of the man and claims that he had a gun, the release stated.
After finding no trace of the van Langone described, investigators tracked down the location of the cellphone used to text 911 and found themselves at the 11-year-old’s home. There, police found Langone in possession of her phone, on the line with Volusia Sheriff’s Dispatch. When confronted, Langone reportedly told officers she had been inspired to prank 911 through a YouTube video, thinking it “would be funny.” (RELATED: Alabama Woman Admits To Lying About Seeing Toddler On Side Of. The Road, Abduction)
“This kind of prank activity is dangerous – we’re going to investigate every incident but today it wasted valuable resources that might have helped someone else who legitimately needed our help,”Sheriff Mike Chitwood stated in the release. Chitwood further warned parents of the dangers of social media, urging parents to closely monitor their children’s activity.
Langone was transported to the Family Resource Center for processing, then transferred to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center, the release stated.