Woman Admits Making Up Story About Pleasanton Robbery, Kidnap Attempt
PLEASANTON (CBS SF) -- A woman who told police last week that her purse was taken from her and the robbers tried to kidnap her infant son in Pleasanton admitted Tuesday that she fabricated the story, a police sergeant said.
Jennifer Flores, 23, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of filing a false police report after she said last Wednesday that two men followed her, pushed her down and grabbed her purse and then her baby, Sgt. Kurt Schlehuber said.
She said she was pushed onto the ground near the Las Positas Garden Townhomes on West Las Positas Boulevard around 6:20 p.m. and one of the men took her stroller with her infant son, tipped it over and then tried unsuccessfully to pull the baby from the stroller.
She said the men then ran off with her purse.
After the reported incident, detectives talking with Flores said they found several holes in her story and looked at surveillance footage from a Domino's Pizza restaurant in Pleasanton, Schlehuber said.
The footage allegedly shows Flores leaving her purse at the pizzeria one hour before she reported the robbery.
The purse was with the employees during the time the purported crime would have occurred, Schlehuber said.
The following day, Flores returned to the pizza parlor to pick up her purse, yet continued to tell detectives details about the made-up robbery.
At her arrest at her job in Dublin Tuesday afternoon, police found the purse on her, which was when she admitted she made up the entire story and there was no truth to what she had reported last week.
Schlehuber said the woman is indeed married with a baby and that she had misplaced the purse, in which she had placed her paycheck.
He said she did not explain her motivation for making up the story instead of reporting the purse as missing.
The attempted kidnapping alarmed residents, many of whom called police in the past week worried about crime in the area, Schlehuber said.
"People freak out when they hear there was an attempted kidnapping in Pleasanton," Schlehuber said.
Schlehuber said many resources were put into the case. The Police Department said nearly $3,000 was spent on staff time and resources to investigate the false report.
The department is seeking restitution for the lost funds.
Flores was booked at Santa Rita Jail where she remains on $10,000 bail.
She is set to be arraigned at the Gale-Schenone Hall of Justice in Pleasanton on Thursday afternoon, according to jail records.
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