A Phoenix, Arizona couple has been apprehended by authorities after fabricating the alleged kidnapping of an 18-month-old child to speed up police investigations on their stolen truck on Wednesday.
Authorities charged James Wagner, 37, and Stormee Wagner, 40, for falsifying information to law enforcement after deliberately reporting that a toddler was on board their stolen pickup truck, concealing intent to fast-track police efforts on locating their vehicle.
According to Sergeant Mercedes Fortune of the Phoenix Police, the Wagners claimed that the supposed carnappers took their truck without permission on Wednesday afternoon while it was parked outside a QuikTrip convenience store near 3rd Avenue and Indian School Road.
The couple noted that they left an 18-month-old baby girl named Wendy inside the vehicle. They described the child to have brown hair, could not talk, and was last spotted wearing a pink onesie with the words "Mama's baby." They said they occasionally babysat her.
Soon after, police issued an Amber Alert for the missing child, publicly releasing security footage pictures of two suspects who had allegedly fled with the baby and the vehicle.
About 5 p.m. the same day, law enforcement located the truck and the suspects near 19th and Glendale avenues. However, the baby was nowhere to be found, Arizona Central noted.
The detectives, in growing suspicions, pressed all four people involved for more information about the incident as they scrambled to search for the missing baby. It was later determined that the missing 18-month-old Wendy narrative was a hoax.
The Wagner "caregivers" had ultimately fabricated the missing child report so that they could speed up police response to get their truck back, police said.
"I think that is extremely horrible and selfish because there are people out there that actually have a good heart and care about the community and the people that live in the community," Ingrid Alatorre, a neighbor to the Wagners, told ABC15.
Alatorre noted that the Wagners' actions were unnecessary and inhumane.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Phoenix Police said that they worked tirelessly to find the alleged kidnapped baby, noting that authorities exhausted all available resources to ensure the baby would be retrieved safely.
A police helicopter was also used as part of the search, reported Fox News.
Meanwhile, the unidentified suspects who allegedly took the car without permission will have charges submitted.
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