According to Justice Department information, there is nothing in state law that specifically outlaws sending text messages or other communications of a false missing person report.
Montana law does forbid giving a fake missing person report to law enforcement. Violation of the law is a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum $500 fine or six months in the county jail.
Instead, a wave of text messages began spreading Thursday evening detailing the alleged kidnapping of two children at a Kwik Way convenience story. The message included a description of the car and its license plate number.
The hoax was never an official Amber Alert and did not go through the state's official Amber Alert office, located in Helena, said Dan Kavanaugh, of the Montana Missing Person Clearinghouse at the Justice Department.
The clearinghouse operates the state's Amber Alert system.
“Somebody just fired up their cell phone and did this,” Kavanaugh said.
Billings officers have located a recipient of the message who did not delete the text. They were working Friday to try to trace the message to its origins, O'Connell said.
O'Connell said that even if the texts were not illegal, the department still wanted to know more about the situation. He said officers did not believe any kidnapping took place.
“It's kind of like spam, in a way,” he said. “But we'd still like to know (who did it). This is the first time this has happened that I know of.”
O'Connell said his office learned of the hoax when people began calling to see if the alert was legitimate.
An official Amber Alert is listed on the Amber Alert web site: www.montana
amberalert.com. There were no active alerts Friday.
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