A search for a possibly missing child ended at 3 a.m. Wednesday when police discovered that a couple fighting inside a vehicle at 28th Street and Chateau Drive on Tuesday afternoon had caused a false alarm, spokesman Keith Foster said Wednesday.
A witness mistakenly thought a child passing by was being kidnapped, Foster said. At least 16 police canvassed the neighborhood and stopped vehicles — searching for the girl — throughout the night.
A man told police at 4:27 p.m. Tuesday a 13-year-old girl inside a silver Chevrolet Trailblazer put her arms out an open window and yelled “Help me!”
Officers eliminated the possibility the girl was among three students who matched the child’s description and had gotten off a school bus in the area, Foster said. No children had been reported missing Tuesday.
Police talked to a girl who had gotten off the bus Tuesday afternoon and said she heard screams but thought it was a joke, according to a police news release Wednesday.
Around 9 p.m. Tuesday, police found a smashed cell phone on the street near where the witness saw the incident. The information from the phone led to a residence with a vehicle similar to what police were looking for, Foster said.
The couple at the home said they were driving in the area at the time and got into an argument. The man grabbed the woman’s phone and threw it out of the window and drove away at a high speed.
Foster said the circumstances surrounding the case were unusual.
Police believe the witness saw the man driving the Trailblazer erratically and saw one of the girls from the bus walking by simultaneously. The man may have confused the description of the woman in the vehicle with the girl and, then, called police, Foster said.
No charges have been filed in the case, Foster said.