Police: Report of teenage girl’s abduction was fake

A witness’ report of a teenage girl being abducted by two men prompted a massive law enforcement response. There was just one problem: The story was fake, Hollywood police said Wednesday.

Wilker Joseph’s report to 911 about an abduction on Feb. 12 “strained and spent valuable resources investigating this false claim,” a police report said.

Agencies that joined the search or helped investigate the case included the FBI, U.S. Marshals, school resource officers, school board investigators, a Broward Sheriff’s helicopter and dozens of Hollywood police officers, the report said.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Joseph, 27, said he teaches computers at Avant Garde Academy in Hollywood and was in the process of hiring a lawyer who could speak for him.

A school administrator did not respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Hollywood police said the abduction reportedly happened about 8:30 a.m. that Tuesday in the 2100 block of Garfield Street, between North Dixie Highway and North 22nd Avenue.

But after several hours of searching, detectives were unable to confirm an abduction had happened, police said then.

Joseph told investigators he was on his way to work that morning and was late. He reported very detailed information about a black Ford F-150, what the child and men wore and how she yelled, “Don’t touch me, let me go.”

He also shared how one of the men was armed, and said to him, “I will shoot this place up,” according to the arrest report.

But despite observing those details, police said Joseph did not notice the truck’s license plate.

As police officers searchone ed street by street for the girl, Joseph’s descriptions of her and the men were given to law enforcement in three counties.

School resource officers verified the locations of children who did not show up to class that day, and found that all absent kids were accounted for by their parents.

Surveillance video from buildings along Garfield Street recorded Joseph’s Hyundai Elantra parked along a swale and a black Ford F-150 drive past, but no got out of the pickup and children did not appear in the video, police said.

The FBI downloaded the contents of Joseph’s cellphone and did not find any information relevant to the alleged kidnapping.

Joseph, of Hollywood, was arrested Tuesday. He faces a misdemeanor charge of making a false report to law enforcement.