| False
report of Amber Alert frustrates Idaho residents
By Allison Porter
May 6, 2009 | Several Idaho residents received an
early unwanted April fools' joke March 31 when a false
Amber Alert was sent out via text message. An Amber
Alert is a procedure for rapidly publicizing the disappearance
of a child. The alert said that a 7-year-old girl had
been abducted from her home and that the suspect was
driving a new silver truck with the license plate number
as 72B381.
The false alert has been going on for quite some time
and is now reaching Idaho. The alert ranged from Maryland
to California in a matter of months. A news station
in Idaho Falls, Idaho, had received many phone calls
regarding this alert and later informed the public in
the nightly news broadcast that the alert was false
and to pay no mind to it.
Many people had already forwarded the message without
knowing the location and before being informed that
the incident was a false one.
"When I first got the message I was a little
bit frustrated because it didn't say how it happened
or even where it happened, which would have been nice
to know," DeeArla Dooley, an Idaho resident, said.
Dooley said that she too had passed it on to about
ten people and didn't think anything of it either until
she watched the news later that day. She believes that
it was a "dumb teenager" who thought it would be funny
to play a joke when really it resulted in a pay it forward
effect. "It's kind of like when kids call 911 and hang
up as a joke or even filing a false police report,"
Dooley said.
Cpl. Alan Bollschweiler of the Blackfoot, Idaho Police
Department said that filing a false police report is
a misdemeanor, but the levels of consequences are different
depending on how serious the crime really is. Bollschweiler
said, "Anybody can do anything, it doesn't matter what
their race or religion is, anybody can do it for various
reasons such as monetary reasons, jealousy, revenge,
and basically anything else that you can think of."
Bollschweiler said that false police reports are pretty
common. He said that even if you just lie to a police
officer you are still obstructing justice and can be
charged with a misdemeanor. Bollschweiler was unable
to give his opinion on what the FBI should do to stop
or even prevent these false alerts from going around
because he is "sworn to enforce" the state and city
laws and that the Amber Alert situation is on a more
federal level if it doesn't give a specific location.
He said that one way to recognize if it is a false
report is that when you receive the message, whether
it is through e-mail, text messaging, or even television,
that the source would be credited in the message.
DeeArla Dooley said that even if there wasn't a credible
source within the message that she will still send it
on because it doesn't hurt anybody or cost her anything
to send a text message. She said that there is always
the possibility that it could be true and might save
somebody's life. Dooley said that she doesn't agree
with the fact that somebody actually made up a false
alert and that something should be done about it. She
said that she doesn't care if the punishment is as little
as a fine or several hours of community service, but
that somebody has to get to those "immature teenagers"
who think they are funny. She said, "Every choice that
is made has a consequence, and those consequences need
to be enforced."
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