Woman charged with falsely reporting daughter in stolen car

A 21-year-old woman is facing a public mischief charge after she allegedly told police her four-yearold daughter was in her stolen vehicle — a story later found to be false, police say.

Toja Michelle Mullens made her first appearance at Regina Provincial Court on Tuesday on the charge, alleging she reported an offence had been committed when it had not. She returns to court on June 14.

According to information from the Regina Police Service, officers were called at 1:23 p.m. on April 21 to a complaint that a woman’s car was stolen with her four-year-old child inside.

Police immediately launched a search for the car, believing the child was in danger. But upon police locating the car later that day — with no child inside — it’s alleged the woman admitted she had made that part up. She was arrested and charged at that point.

City police spokesman Les Parker did not have information on how long it took police to locate the car, nor was he able to say what, if any, explanation the woman offered about why she’d made the allegedly false report about the child.

Speaking generally, Parker said there are a number of reasons the reporting of a false offence is a concern. Aside from the fact it’s against the law, it poses a practical problem for police when forced to use valuable resources.

Parker noted police would typically deploy more resources for a case such as this where a child is believed to be in danger, leaving fewer resources available for other calls, some of which could be legitimately serious.

“Every report is taken seriously, but the level of urgency on a missing child, of course, would be greater than a stolen vehicle ...” he said. “It’s almost like a ‘cry wolf’ situation ... We’re left to give an appropriate response to what we believe to be a kidnapping when in fact it’s stolen property.”