Police Arrest Man Over Kidnap Hoax

A man who claimed that his twin infants were abducted during a carjacking in Downtown Los Angeles was under arrest Thursday after telling police the incident was a hoax.

“He eventually told us he, in fact, did lie,” Los Angeles Detective Richard Record said. “We contacted relatives in El Paso, and they told us he does not have any kids.”

Investigators determined that the suspect, who first identified himself as Alexander Maldini of El Paso, Tex., is actually Abraham Rodriguez, 24, of El Monte, Record said.

Record said Rodriguez was arrested about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday on suspicion of providing false information to a police officer, a misdemeanor, and booked into jail.

Rodriguez initially reported that his children were kidnaped about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday near Olive Street and Washington Boulevard, at the southern end of Downtown.

He claimed that carjackers pulled a gun and demanded the keys to his 1990 Ford Mustang and told him to “hand it over or we will kill the babies.”

But police became suspicious when Rodriguez’s story--related to them in a “very calm, very passive” manner--was difficult to corroborate.

Nevertheless, police launched a massive hunt for the car, which detectives later determined does not exist.

“Our sole concern was for the kids,” Record said. “We realized there was the possibility that he was lying from the beginning. But we did all the proper procedures.”