Mom's Facebook Claim About Abduction Attempt a Lie: Cops

Chelsie Hendel allegedly posted a live video about a crime that never happened
By Josh Gardner,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 12, 2018 5:00 PM CDT
Cops Say Mom Faked Claim of Attempted Child Abduction
A Walmart sign at a store in Hialeah Gardens, Fla.   (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

An Ohio mom's Facebook video about the attempted abduction of her child in a Walmart parking lot was all made up, per local authorities. Chelsie Hendel was arrested Friday after the Marion County Sheriff's Office says the 27-year-old mother recorded a live video about her experience in the parking lot of an area Walmart, where a man tried to snatch her daughter. "That man walked up and he grabbed (my daughter) and I looked at him and I said what the F are you doing that is my kid," Hendel said in the video, per USA Today. "I wanted to let everyone know about this because they couldn't get a good look of him on the cameras and there is nothing really that we could do about it but she is fine and everything is fine."

Per the Marion Star, Hendel said she reported the incident to the store but was told they couldn't help. Not so, according to Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey, who said security footage his office reviewed showed no such incident happened. Bailey also said Hendel never reported a crime to police. When police questioned Hendel at her home on Friday, they say she admitted to making the story up and was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of inducing panic. Her video, which reportedly got reactions from hundreds of users, has been taken down from Facebook. (More Facebook stories.)

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