2 people were arrested at Towne East, but it wasn’t for abduction

Wichita police say a Facebook post circulating about an attempted abduction in the parking lot of Towne East Square on Thursday is not accurate.

“There was not an abduction,” Officer Paul Cruz said Friday morning.

Asked if there was a possible abduction, Cruz also said no.

The string of events started Thursday afternoon when a woman, 34, reported to police that another woman, 37, had approached her in the parking lot of Walmart and started asking about her children. The 34-year-old woman left, called police and then posted about the interaction on Facebook.

Around 7 p.m. that day, the same 37-year-old woman was spotted panhandling in the parking lot of Von Maur at Towne East Square. She had a card which said she was deaf and approached people while her husband followed in a stolen SUV, Cruz said.

At one point, the panhandler approached a 22-year-old woman, who had seen the post about the Walmart incident on Facebook and recognized the woman. She called police and started recording on her phone.

While police were en route, about four people tried to detain the woman and her husband, Cruz said. They were both arrested on supsicion of trespassing at Towne East. He was additionally arrested on suspicion of having a stolen vehicle, Cruz said. Both had been banned from the mall before for panhandling.

The 22-year-old woman wrote her own Facebook post, which has been shared more than 1,400 times by Friday afternoon. It says, “everyone know that girl that's been riding around pretending to be deaf and kid napping people and robbing them?? Well yeah that sh** just happened to me and I got her a** put in jail.”

A post from a second woman Thursday night also claimed there had been an attempted abduction and said, “Seriously outside of von maur waiting on the police because some woman tried to kidnap a girl! She pretended she was deaf and tried to grab the girl, this is serious, this is real!”

It was shared more than 5,000 times by the same time Friday, it is no longer showing on her Facebook page.

Cruz said that although the Facebook posts were well-intended, they created more work for police.

“I can tell you that the incident was very chaotic, one of our own detectives was on scene,” he said earlier Friday. At 3 p.m., Cruz said he and three other officers spent the day looking through reports making sure there was no abduction reported at any location in Wichita – there wasn’t, he said.

Cruz asked that anyone who witnesses a crime call 911, not post on social media.

“A lot of times we find ourselves trying to contact citizens who post on social media and at the end of the day, when the investigation is complete, find (the information) is inaccurate,” he said.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 5:02 PM with the headline "2 people were arrested at Towne East, but it wasn’t for abduction."