A kidnapping call to Gig Harbor Police Wednesday evening turned out to be a hoax.
Officers were in the middle of investigating a suspicious truck Wednesday in a parking lot at 11400 51st Ave. NW when they received a call from dispatchers about an alleged kidnapping of a woman and her baby in front of the YMCA on Harbor Hill Drive, according to the police report.
Security footage, conflicting information from the person who reported the kidnapping and other signs suggested that no such incident occurred, the report said. Police suspect the call was an intentional distraction meant to divert them from further investigating the suspicious truck and the driver.
The Gig Harbor police report gives this account of what happened:
An officer patrolling the parking lot around 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 28 saw a suspicious "beat up" truck in one of the parking stalls. The vehicle was unoccupied. While researching the vehicle further, the officer saw a man pushing a shopping cart of merchandise in his direction. That's when another man got into the truck and drove past the man pushing the shopping cart, who "appeared to be wandering aimlessly" and seemed to be waiting for the officer to leave.
After the driver of the truck parked nearby and exited the car, the officer asked him if he was the owner listed on the car's report of sale. The man didn't have any identification on him but told the officer his name.
Records indicated the man had prior convictions for possession of a stolen vehicle and second-degree assault. He also appeared to have a warrant out of King County in connection to burglary, theft and identity theft.
Then a call came in about a reported kidnapping at the YMCA at 10550 Harbor Hill Dr., calling away the officers who had been responding to the suspicious vehicle nearby. Meanwhile, the man with the suspicious vehicle said "he called a friend to come get the truck."
Dispatchers told officers that someone reported seeing a man in front of the YMCA "kidnap a woman and baby and put her into a yellow Ford Windstar minivan," the police report said.
The reporting party also alleged the man "was waving a silver hand gun before forcing the female into the van," and that the baby "appeared a few months old wrapped in a blue blanket."
After making the report, the caller said his phone was about to die and disconnected.
Various signs suggested no such kidnapping occurred.
The YMCA manager hadn't heard or seen such an incident outside when contacted by one of the officers, the police report said. Security footage didn't show such a minivan entering or leaving the parking lot.
"When I arrived at YMCA, it was busy with a lot of foot traffic," one officer wrote. "No one in the area flagged me down or reported a kidnapping occurred."
The caller also seemed to give conflicting information, according to the police report. He identified himself with a different name at the end of the call than he gave dispatchers initially. At first, he said he didn't know which direction the kidnapper's vehicle went, then said it was going west on Harbor Hill. Harbor Hill Drive runs north-south. The caller then said the vehicle was going south.
Dispatchers later confirmed the caller was in the area of the parking lot when he reported the kidnapping. Meanwhile, the first officer who had noticed the suspicious vehicle saw another suspect who might be connected circling the parking lot while the driver was on the phone.
The suspicious vehicle wasn't in the parking lot when a Pierce County sheriff's deputy went back to check.
"It is my belief that either (the driver of the suspicious vehicle) made the call himself as a distraction/diversion or he had another person make the call on his behalf," one of the officers wrote.
Further information was not immediately available.
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