11-year-old Florida girl arrested after prank-texting 911 to say her friend was … – NBC News

An 11-year-old Florida girl was arrested after falsely texting authorities that her friend was kidnapped by an armed man. She later confessed the prank was part of a YouTube challenge.The girl texted 911 Wednesday morning to say her friend, 14, was abducted by “an armed male driving a white van on South I-95 in Oak Hill,” the Volusia Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The girl said she was following the van in a blue Jeep. NBC News is not identifying the 11-year-old because she is a minor. A dispatcher to the sheriff’s communication advised the sheriff’s office at 9:45 a.m. of a “suspicious incident reported by text message.” The 11-year-old then texted updates for the next hour and a half — describing the male suspect and saying he had a gun. Deputies responded along with help from the sheriff’s office aviation unit and officers from Edgewater, New Smyrna Beach and Port Orange to search for the suspect vehicle — but no van was found. At about 10:30 a.m., deputies tracked the cellphone that was texting 911 to a home in Port Orange. Once at the home, they spoke with the girl’s father, who said she was inside with her family. “As deputies
Read More