**Wild-Goose Chase**

[Katahu]

Tell me. Is this stupid or not? :-/

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3803580/

Why would someone in their right mind be willing to start such a thing? It's stupid. :-/

[chomp_rock]

She's trying to get attention, preferably sympathy.

[russ]

She's trying to get attention, preferably sympathy.

Yup!

[Polynomial]

people want money for nothing nowadays

[ozzy72]

The police should send a bill for all the wasted man-hours. It'd make people think twice before doing something this dumb. Hit 'em where it hurts, the wallet

Ozzy

[KnightStryker]

I agree with the idea of billing the girl. But, unfortunally in todays world I do not think it would have the result that you mentioned. I see it all the time at work, we bust someone for shoplifting and the police take them away, next week we bust the same guy again for stealing the same thing  AGAIN, cops take him away. Next week we bust his girlfriend for stealing the same thing he was after both times while he was sitting out in the car waitting. This happened over the past three weeks. The item they were trying to steal was a pack of smokes, could have saved so much money in fines and other stuff if they would have just payed for them. It might work on some people, but there are too many stupid people out there that will never learn, its kinda sad when you think bout it.

Kevin

[Craig.]

lets just hope this doesnt really happen to the girl, because next time they wont be so believing

[Hagar]

Completely irresponsible & I don't see any motive or reason why a young girl would do such a thing. Must be attention seeking or something.

A fine would do no good as someone else would end up paying. The real problem is that it might never happen to this particular girl in reality (I hope it doesn't) & will not affect her personally. Meanwhile, someone else who calls for help in a similar situation might not be so readily believed (or at least doubted) by the same people concerned with the first one.

[Katahu]

Have you people ever heard or read the story about a boy who cried 'Wolf'?

If you did, then you already know the moral to the story.

I guess the little girl didn't read that story.

We have so many crazy and stupid people these days. However, the stupid ones are the ones that get into trouble nowadays.

[Smoke2much]

The problem is that if this girl had named a specific assailant he would have been locked up on her say and lost everything.  (wife, family, friends, job etc.)  If the accusation was found to be false people would still have said "No smoke without fire" and other useful phrases.....

Crimes of this nature (wasting police time) need to be punished effectively or the real criminals will prevail.

[Politically Incorrect]

She's trying to get attention, preferably sympathy.

True!
And if she was getting it from home (parents?) she wouldn't have gone to this. I might be wrong but I'll bet I'm right.
It is the same with these undisiplined children who carry guns to school and kill. They want attention. And the Media doesn't help any, when that is all they show on the television they think to themselves "well if mom and dad won't pay attention to me", or "nobody at school pays attention to me" . "I bet if I did this, someone will notice me"
They'll do this for their 15 minutes of fame without thinking about consequences.
And then the parents will immediately put the blame on music, tv video games etc. When 9 time out of 10 they (parents) are to blame.
Granted now days you can't disipline your kids, smack their hands and they get you arrested. But I was spanked if I did wrong and I turned out all right, made my mistakes but nothing as stupid as this or taking a gun to school.
All in all if children (and I don't care what neighborhood or enviroment they're in) recived the one on one attention they deserve from their familiy (mainly their parents or parent if the case may be) and if they were disiplined you wouldn't be seeing stories such as this or the more horrifying ones that plauge the world today!

And i agree with CraigL: Let's hope that this never really does happen to this girl!! because as stated the law might just take their time getting there!!!

[Wing Nut]

The police should send a bill for all the wasted man-hours. It'd make people think twice before doing something this dumb. Hit 'em where it hurts, the wallet

Ozzy

Who would they bill?  Not the parents.  I could see it if the kid was let run free and got into trouble, but the parents can't be held responsible for something like that.  They have no control over their daughter lying or not.  They can't bill the daughter because she has no money...

[Hagar]

[quote]but the parents can't be held responsible for something like that.