Kidnap report ends up assault
By Nick Hiltunen
Published in News on April 6, 2008 2:51 AM
FREMONT -- An Ayden man head-butted his girlfriend, then called police to falsely report men had kidnapped her at gunpoint early Friday morning, authorities said.
That initially sent Wayne County sheriff's deputies searching for the non-existent kidnappers in a four-hour escapade that a captain later called a "wild goose chase."
The victim and her two young children, ages 6 and 1, left their Peacock Street residence just outside Fremont after Jeronimo Tello Rubio, 26, reportedly head-butted her.
Authorities said the Fremont area victim had visible injuries consistent with head-butting.
Some time after Rubio filed the false report, the victim showed up at the magistrate's office seeking to file charges against her boyfriend, Capt. Tom Effler said, putting a stop to the search for kidnappers.
Initially, the Sheriff's Office investigated the report as a first-degree burglary and kidnapping because of Rubio's report of the armed as-sailants.
Fremont officers and Wayne County sheriff's patrol deputies started searching for men who matched the description, Effler said.
Then, a detective was dispatched, and Rubio's story started to unravel, Effler said.
Effler said Detective Sgt. Rick Farfour almost immediately surmised that something about Rubio's story did not quite add up.
"(Farfour) goes out there, and saw things that weren't exactly matching what (Rubio) said," Effler reported. "In the meantime, she (the victim and Rubio's girlfriend) was at the magistrate's office" seeking charges.
Farfour made contact with the victim and determined that police should stop searching for armed gunmen who had kidnapped a woman and her two children, Effler said.
The victim was not hospitalized for her injuries, the captain said.
As a result of the incident, Rubio was charged with filing a false police report, resisting, delaying or obstructing police business, misuse of emergency communications and assault inflicting serious injury.
The Sheriff's Office captain said Rubio's actions were dangerous not just to his victim, but to people who depend on fast response from emergency workers.
"Calls of this nature will not be tolerated," Effler said. "(They take) time away from true victims of crimes in Wayne County as well as officers and dispatchers who are" already receiving real emergency calls.