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Fifth Grader Made Up Tale of Attempted Kidnapping Near School, NYPD Says

By  Dana Varinsky and Aidan Gardiner | December 17, 2013 10:57am | Updated on December 17, 2013 2:13pm

 A girl was about a block from P.S. 139 in Brooklyn when a man grabbed her arm, police said.
A girl was about a block from P.S. 139 in Brooklyn when a man grabbed her arm, police said.
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DNAinfo/Dana Varinsky

DITMAS PARK — A 10-year-old girl who told police Tuesday morning that she had narrowly escaped being kidnapped on her way to school later admitted to investigators that she made the whole thing up, police said.

The fifth-grade girl initially said she was walking to P.S. 139, at 330 Rugby Rd., at 7:45 a.m. when a mustachioed man jumped out of a van and tried to kidnap her just a block from the school, according to the NYPD said and the Department of Education. She told school staffers that she wrested free from his grasp and ran to the school for safety. Staffers called her parents and police, a DOE spokeswoman said.

Detectives canvassed the area seeking witnesses or surveillance footage, police said.

When investigators interviewed the girl, she finally admitted that she made up the story, a police spokeswoman said. Police could not immediately say why the girl fabricated the story.

Filing a false police report is a felony and can carry up to seven years in jail. However, an NYPD spokeswoman said that she did not think the girl would face criminal charges.