Fake abduction story was the 11th this year

A 15-year-old Fresno girl is in trouble with the law, now that police have determined her story about an attempted abduction was fake.

On Tuesday, the teen claimed a man stole her purse and tried pulling her into his truck, in the area of Bullard and West.

Police discovered the story was a false when they looked at a security camera footage from the scene and nothing added up with the girl's story. 

When they confronted her, she confessed to making it up because of problems at home. 

Deputy Chief Keith Foster with the Fresno Police Department says this kind of lie is dangerous and puts the entire community at risk. "These are the types of calls that put tremendous fear in our community," said Foster.

Foster says the department takes this type of report very seriously and launched every resource they had when a 15-year-old girl claimed that a man tried to kidnap her. "We don't have the luxury of treating this as a "cry wolf". We're not going to let our guard down and say, 'No, this didn't happen and we're not going to commit the resources.' Because the one time it does occur, then we've failed our community and we're not going to do that."

The Fresno Police Department has investigated 12 kidnapping reports this year - 11 have proved to be fake. 

The one real case happened in September when a 10-year-old girl was abducted near Vinland Elementary and then sexually assaulted off a country road. 

Police arrested the suspect the following day. 

CBS47 asked family therapist, Dawn Keller, what would drive a teen to make up a story about an attempted abduction. "There must be me something that is a greater feared consequence," said Keller.

Keller says the child thinks rather than get in trouble with their parents, they'll do whatever it takes to rescue themselves, which in the end, breaks trust and makes things worse. "If there's reasonable rules I'm going to tell the child to tell the truth and work out a plan the child wants in the future and encourage the parents to negotiate with their children reasonable rules and expectations," said Keller.

Deputy Chief Foster says this hoax not only pulled emergency services away from others in need, but Officers could have also mistaken an innocent person who matched the fabricated suspect's description. "Those are the type of things that we act upon and take at face value as truth and they can lead to someone being injured," said Foster.

Meanwhile, Fresno Unified School District released the following statement: "While we are grateful to the Fresno Police Department for their diligence in getting to the bottom of yesterday's abduction hoax, our priority remains in supporting the student with counseling services."

The teen will have to pay a fine for making the false police report.