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Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spent several hours overnight looking for a 4-year-old child who had been kidnapped, they were told.
Now police say the story was phony, and the man whose report sent officers on alert status has been arrested.
Jeffrey Boyd Gaither Jr., 22, was charged early Friday morning with carrying a concealed weapon and filing a false police report to a law enforcement agency, authorities say.
Police say Boyd told them Thursday evening that he had been carjacked and robbed, and that a 4-year-old girl was in the carjacked vehicle. The alleged carjacking and kidnapping happened about 9:30 p.m. in the 2100 block of Eastway Drive in northeast Charlotte.
Officers across the city were put on alert, looking for a silver four-door Mercedes with 20-inch rims. The man told police the little girl was wearing a pink Dora the Explorer shirt.
Police spent several hours looking for the vehicle and little girl.
However, according to police Officer Rosalyn Harrington, Gaither told detectives overnight that there was no kidnapping and no child involved.
He had been the victim of an armed robbery in the 1900 block of Eastway Drive while he was walking along the sidewalk, he told police. Officers are looking for two men in that case.
Gaither is still being questioned at the Mecklenburg County Jail.
