Girl made up abduction tale, officials say

When authorities were told a 4-year-old girl had reported that a man tried to kidnap her from a playground, they dispatched eight squad cars, a helicopter and a dozen deputies to track down the perpetrator.

For four hours Tuesday, they canvassed the girl’s Midway City neighborhood, an unincorporated area in the middle of Orange County. Officers closed the playground where the girl said the man had tried to snatch her and investigators searched the neighborhood for the person the child had described -- a spiky-haired man with a dragon tattoo.

On Wednesday, however, Orange County sheriff’s officials announced that the incident appeared to be a figment of the child’s imagination -- one apparently stoked by a recent television show.

Deputies began to grow suspicious of the child’s assertion when her story changed repeatedly during the search, according to Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

Ultimately, the child admitted that she had made up the story because she was angry with her mother, he said.

The girl was annoyed and frightened because she had been left alone on a playground in the mobile home park where she lives, he added.

Her mother was nearby in the park office.

“Obviously, we take this very seriously and, frankly, we give allegations of child kidnapping the highest priority,” Amormino said. “If we know something like this has happened, the last thing we want is for someone to get away.”

Amormino said it wasn’t the first time authorities had been led astray.

In April, an 11-year-old Aliso Viejo girl’s tale of an attempted abduction by a knife-wielding man led to a countywide search. Authorities said the girl was trying to cover up the fact that she was late and had missed the bus to school.

In 2004, a 36-year-old man was jailed for eight months on child-molestation charges after a 12-year-old girl told police he had attacked her and a friend in a Garden Grove park. The girl admitted during the trial that the story was a hoax, concocted by her and her friends as an excuse for getting home late from school.

In Tuesday’s case, Amormino said authorities were stunned that a child so young could provide such vivid details about something that didn’t happen.

“In 28 years in law enforcement, I have never had a 4-year-old make up a story like this,” Amormino said.

Authorities can’t punish the girl, but Amormino said they might suggest counseling.

jennifer.delson@latimes.com