Amber Alert of Missing Girl Turns Out to be Hoax

An Amber Alert that has spread rapidly through text messages and online turned out to be a hoax.

Wednesday, July 15th 2009, 10:00 pm

By: News 9


By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- An Amber Alert that has spread rapidly through text messages and online turned out to be a hoax.

Melissa Garcia spends a lot of time at the computer. She's known as the consumer queen and tells thousands every month where to find the best deals. But Tuesday night, the topic became more serious.

Garcia said she received a twitter message of a missinga 3-year-old girl. She said the message seemed legit and included a description and tag number of the suspect's vehicle.

"This tweet came through. It said, 'Amber Alert three year old girl taken my a man driving a new silver truck, oklahoma plate 72B381,'" Garcia said.

Shortly after receiving the tweet, Garcia said her twitter page was filled with the same message.

"It's information out there with consumers you trust especially with an Amber Alert. It's so important to get that information out immediately because a second or a minute can really make a difference in catching someone," Garcia said.

But the message didn't just spread on the Internet. Text messages also started to circulate encouraging people to be on the lookout for the silver truck.

"I did run the plate and it's not on file. So, it's one of two things, the license plate could actually exist it's just not in the system, but the likelihood is it's a bogus tag number and the vehicle doesn't even exist," said Oklahoma Highway Patrol Captain Chris West.

West said the fake Amber Alert is similar to another one being spread through e-mail.

"I find it terribly disturbing that people would want to do the cry wolf thing on these networks and make people a little gun shy whether they think it's going to be real or not," West said.

And that has parents like Garcia worried.

"It concerns me because if it's my child and I want that information getting out. I don't want consumers or people out there thinking, 'is this a hoax?'" Garcia said.

West said a real Amber Alert can be determined by calling the Department of Public Safety or a media outlet.

Police said there is no investigation underway to determine who's behind the hoax Amber Alerts.

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