SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - A woman who claimed her grandchild was abducted when a man stole her car at a Southwest Miami-Dade gas station was taken into custody because she filed a false police report, officials said.
According to Miami-Dade Police, Antoinette Rowan told authorities she picked up the man, whom she had met online regarding some sort of transaction involving her vehicle, on Sunday.
After they went to a Walmart, she said, they stopped at the Sunoco gas station along Southwest 112th Avenue and 220th Street at around 8:15 p.m.
Investigators said Rowan told them she briefly left the vehicle, leaving her 3-year-old grandchild still in the back seat. Moments later, she said, the man took off in her vehicle with the child still inside.
Surveillance video from the gas station showed the woman walking toward the building and just moments later running back out when she saw the car taking off.
The child was later returned to the woman’s home.
“Detectives kept an open line of communication, and that’s how, at one point, [her] 21-year-old daughter contacted the authorities and said that she was home, and she heard what she thought was the voice of her little 3-year-old brother,” said Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta. “She walked outside, and sure enough, he was standing outside. Unknown how he got dropped off, when he got dropped off, by who, but she says that he was unharmed.”
Monday afternoon, however, police said Rowan’s account of events was not true.
Rowan was taken into custody and will be placed under arrest and charged with filing a false police report.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.