Police Say Incident Was 'Unfounded' In Search For Missing 5-Year-Old
BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ)—Police rolled out a heavy response on Thursday afternoon after a 5-year-old was reportedly kidnapped during a car theft.
Alex DeMetrick has more on the desperate search that ended not long after it started.
Baltimore County and City put both their police helicopters into the air above neighborhoods near York road.
On the ground, police were everywhere, after a call came in about 1:00 p.m. Thursday.
A woman reported her 5-year-old daughter, who had been left inside a car on Lothian Road, had been taken when someone stole her car.
The search fanned out into the Govans area of the city, where police quickly spotted the car parked in an alley.
Neighbors didn't know what was going on.
"What?! So she was in the area," one neighbor said.
It became the starting point in the search for the 5-year-old, but within an hour, it also became the finish. Detectives were seen leaving the area with a woman in the backseat, it's not clear if she was the mother, but word quickly followed that it was all a false alarm.
Requests to meet with a police spokesman were not successful, the department did send out a tweet saying only the incident was unfounded.
Update: We are touched by everyone's concern, this incident has been determined to be unfounded. Thank you for your assistance.
— Baltimore Police (@BaltimorePolice) February 5, 2015
"It's really strange because this isn't that bad of an area around because of the school being here. I'm glad it was a false alarm and the little girl is ok," said Ciara Diggs.
If indeed there was a 5-year-old girl involved, police have yet to detail what the final facts are in this incident.
Police were set to issue an Amber Alert for the missing girl, but immediately canceled it when they learned the report was unfounded.