Adrian Vandeusen and Bryan R. Patrick arrested in kidnapping prank gone wrong after NY teens were spotted speeding in Ilion and screaming for help, leading to open investigation.
It probably felt like fun at the time… Two New York teens have been charged with making a false report after they admitted to racing through the streets of a New York village with one of them hanging out a car window yelling he’d been kidnapped.
Adrian M. Vandeusen of Rome and Bryan R. Patrick of West Winfield, both 19, ‘admitted that they were joking and laughing throughout the time they were screaming from the open vehicle windows and added that they had to stop several times because their throats hurt so much from yelling,’ the Ilion Police Department stated in a Facebook release.
Notice of the alleged kidnapping came during the early hours of Wednesday morning in the villages of Ilion and Herkimer when cops circa 12.30 a.m, received reports of a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed while a person inside was screaming and calling for help. Police immediately began investigating the incident as if it were real. Except it wasn’t.
Come Friday, Vandeusen and Patrick turned themselves in and admitted being behind the ‘fake kidnapping,’ the Rome Sentinel reported.
Both teens were charged with one count each of third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor, police said. Patrick has additionally been charged with two tickets for unreasonable speed, police said. They are both scheduled to appear in Ilion Village Court.
‘The Village of lion Police Department (and other law enforcement agencies) consider reports of this nature extremely serious. Although individuals may believe they’re only fooling around or committing a prank like something viewed on social media, these actions are nothing to joke about,’ said Ilion Police Chief Laurie Ann DeVaul in a release.
‘This type of behavior causes public alarm, panic and fear, and results in extensive investigations which require hours of valuable resources which could otherwise be devoted to real crimes and the protection of real victims. We urge the public to resist reckless and dangerous behaviors of this nature and remind the public that this could result in arrest and prosecution.’
