Man Falsely Tells Cops A Child Was In His Stolen Mustang To Get It Found Quicker

While this guy did manage to get his car recovered, the way he went about it made the situation so much worse.

James Reyes is the owner of the early 2000’s Mustang in question. The car was reported as stolen from 202nd Street in Queens the night of Halloween. That part was true, however when giving police the report, Reyes slipped in there that a seven-year-old special needs child was in the car. Naturally, that elevated the report to a kidnapping instead of just another stolen vehicle. This of course, also ramps up the effort and manpower that goes into finding the car.

ABC7 New York reports the Mustang and the 17-year-old thief were found just four hours later although there was no child with the vehicle. Police continued their searched for a boy but when the suspect said he didn’t know anything about a carjacked boy, it was determined there was never a child in the Mustang. Reyes simply told officers that to expedite the police response. And expedite the search they did.

“They blocked off from 100 to 104th avenues, searched all the yards, helicopters flying, looking for this child, then come to find out this morning there was no child,” neighborhood resident Joe Minott told ABC7.

Reyes was charged with filing a false police report and the theft suspect was released to the custody of his parents.