This is no way to teach a lesson, police said.
A Lilburn woman was arrested Monday for allegedly making up a story about an attempted child kidnapping at a thrift store in August.
Police said Pamela Ann Strong admitted she made up the story because she was upset that the 3-year-old boy’s parents were not watching him in the store.
The incident happened on Aug. 30 at the Park Avenue Thrift Store in Lilburn. Strong told police she saw a man attempt to kidnap the child from the store. She gave police a description of the “kidnapper” and was hailed as a Good Samaritan in media reports.
Investigators re-interviewed Strong on Friday to see if they could glean any new information that might help them find a suspect. During the interview, Strong admitted she had lied, police said, and that she never saw anyone touch or attempt to grab the child. She stated she fabricated the story because she was upset the child’s parents let him look at the toys by himself and were not watching him.
“This is a serious offense,” said Lilburn Police Capt. Ben Haynes. “The department spent several man hours trying to locate this suspect. The department takes these types of reports extremely serious and when this was initially reported, other investigations were dropped to focus on this one. To later find out this was a fabricated story is extremely disappointing.”
Strong was taken to the Gwinnett County Jail, where she remained Tuesday morning on $5,700 bond.
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