An 18-year-old woman from Iowa, US, was arrested for falsely reporting a crime to avoid a first date.
On June 16, Thomas had arranged a date with a man she had met through a dating app in her hometown of North Liberty. However, when the man arrived at her doorstep to pick her up for their date, she panicked and didn’t want to go out anymore.
Instead of telling her date the truth, she called the police and fabricated a story about the man being an abusive ex-boyfriend who was threatening her. According to an affidavit, Thomas went as far as to claim she was pregnant with the man's child and that he intended to "hit, punch, kick, and stab her”, New York Post reported.
When officers arrived, the man presented evidence showing they had only met a week prior through a dating app, contradicting Thomas's claims.
"The conversation showed he was being honest and he really did just meet this female," the affidavit reads. Despite Thomas's assertion that they had known each other for two years and communicated via Snapchat, the police discovered she had deleted the messages and admitted to lying.
As a result of her false claims, the man was detained for over an hour while the police investigated.
Thomas confessed to making the false report because she got cold feet about meeting her date. She stated she didn't believe the officers would help her if she told the truth, leading her to fabricate the entire scenario.
The teen was subsequently arrested and charged with two counts of False Report of Indictable Offense to Public Entity and one count of False Report on a 911 call, both misdemeanours.
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