Police: Mother Claims Son Was In Stolen Car, Story Is Hoax
BALTIMORE (WJZ)--A Baltimore mother is now facing criminal charges after police say she lied about her child being in the back seat of her stolen car on Friday.
WJZ's Derek Valcourt has the latest.
The alert first came out shortly after 10:30 a.m. when 22-year-old Brittany Berkley, in the 1300 block of Harlem Ave., reported she'd left her keys in the ignition and her child in the back seat while she ran into the house.
Berkley told police when she came back out minutes later, she saw man getting into her car and driving away, immediately earning her sympathy from neighbors.
"That's somebody's child, I know she's going crazy right now, she can't see her child right now," said Breona Butler.
But as police began an intense search on the ground and from the sky, before they could even put out an amber alert, Berkley's story began to unravel. Her child was found safe at the his daycare.
Police say Berkley's car really was stolen, but she lied about her child being in it, hoping police would find the car faster.
"Right now we're preparing to charge the mother with a false statement, because the amount of resources that goes into something like this are extraordinary," said Baltimore Police spokesperson, T.J. Smith. "We had to take our officers off the street from fighting crime to go out and looking for a child in a vehicle and that never was the case."
Similar hoaxes have happened in this past. In fact earlier this year police said another woman lied about a little girl being inside her stolen car which was later found.
The vehicle is described as a white, four-door, 2008 Mazda 6 with a Maryland temporary tag of 5CD004.
Berkley is charged with false statement.
Anyone with any information is asked to call police.
Watch T.J. Smith's press conference:
