PORT ORANGE, Fla. — An 11-year-old girl was arrested after authorities say she falsely reported that her friend was kidnapped in Oak Hill, Florida but an armed man in a white van.
In a news release, Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said that Wednesday morning, the 11-year-old texted 911 to report her friend’s abduction just before 10 a.m.
A dispatcher with the sheriff’s office received the suspicious text that the girl said her 14-year-old friend was abducted and she was following his van in a blue Jeep. She continued to text updates for the next hour and a half. Some of those texts included a suspect description and that the man had a gun.
Multiple deputies with the sheriff’s office and from other agencies including Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach, Port Orange police, and Air One responded to the area to search for a suspect and his vehicle which were not found.
Eventually, the text was tracked to a cellphone at a house in Port Orange, Florida, the sheriff’s office said.
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Deputies arrested her outside her family’s house. CBS News reported that she has been charged with making a false police report involving the use of a firearm in a violent manner and misuse of 911. The false police report charge is a felony and the misuse of 911 is a misdemeanor.
In a video on Facebook from the sheriff’s office, one of the officers tells the girl while in handcuffs that “This is going to be an opportunity for you to turn this into a learning experience,” according to CBS News.
The girl was processed after her arrest and was transferred to the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center, CBS News reported.
The girl was identified by the sheriff’s office as Ava Rose Langone, 11. She reportedly told investigators that she got the idea to prank 911 from a YouTube challenge and she thought it “would be funny.”
“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 said in the news release.