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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Oregon State Police are trying to figure out where a false Amber Alert came from this week after mid-Willamette Valley residents received cell phone text messages about a possible kidnapping.
State troopers said the message was an odd mistake, sent April 9 after a mother took her two children from their home in Montana.
Similar hoax Amber Alert messages have been sent to cell phone users in Vermont, Mississippi and New York.
“After receiving some calls concerning this alert, we immediately confirmed it was a hoax and it is being looked into to determine where it may have originated from,” said said state police Lt. James Rentz, Oregon Amber Alert coordinator.
State police said that on Monday and Tuesday, April 14 and 15, dozens of people in the Albany area started getting cell phone text messages saying: “AMBER ALERT! Albany area-2 little girls kidnapped around noon. Suspect is driving brown jeep liberty. Plate number 43 6519 please send to everyone.”
After confirming that there were no reports of local kidnappings, state troopers started looking for the source of the text message, Rentz said.
Digging deeper, state police confirmed that the license plate number in the message was from an actual Amber Alert sent last week from Towsend, Mont., where a 49-year-old woman was accused of abducting her two young daughters and driving away in her brown 2002 Jeep Liberty with Montana plates.
The two children were found and returned to their home. The woman was arrested in Wisconsin. The Montana Amber Alert was canceled April 12.
Amber Alerts are issued by law enforcement agencies when the public’s help is needed to find a missing or abducted child. Oregon Amber Alerts come from the Oregon State Police Northern Command Center.
Anyone with information about the source of the bogus Amber Alert text message should call the center, 1-800-452-7888.
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