The story of three fourth graders who claimed that they escaped an attempted kidnapping in Tanjung Duren, West Jakarta, went viral earlier this week after one of them claimed to have bit the kidnapper’s arm before they ran away.
Their story caused concerns about a kidnapper being on the loose around the neighborhood and also had the police on alert as the girls, identified by their initials PI, S and SF, claimed they saw two children tied up inside the kidnapper’s car.
But, according to the police, the girls fabricated the whole thing.
“There was no attempted abduction of PI (and her friends),” said Commissioner Ivers Manossoh, deputy head of the Crime Investigation Unit at the West Jakarta Police, as quoted by Kompas yesterday.
Ivers said the police came to the conclusion after carrying out a thorough investigation in which they found irregularities in the girls’ testimonies.
“We have also checked CCTV footage (from where the attempted kidnapping supposedly took place) and there was no such incident,” Ivers said.
The girls’ school principal, Mulyadi, said he was disappointed that the girls had made up the story.
“They’re little kids and they’re already like this. As an educator I’m saddened that my students played sinetron (Indonesian soap opera),” he said, as quoted by Kumparan.
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