Report of Child’s Abduction Was Hoax, Say Investigators

After spending nine hours searching door-to-door in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County sheriff’s investigators Tuesday said a report of a child’s abduction there was a hoax.

“We could not find any victim of a kidnapping,” sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Hector Rivera said. “We are now very confident in saying that a kidnapping did not occur.”

Earlier in the day, a caller reported that a young girl had been forced into a pickup truck on Camino las Ramblas near Interstate 5. The caller said the child, who appeared to be about 10 years old, was forced into a green Nissan truck by a bald white man wearing a white T-shirt.

But a search of nearby apartments and houses and calls to local elementary schools turned up no evidence that a child was missing.

Rivera said 35 deputies spent most of the day knocking on doors. “We have launched a criminal investigation concerning the information that was provided,” he said late Thursday.