North Fulton County

Mom says hoax kidnapping call shook her to core

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — A Johns Creek mother is warning other parents after she received a call from a scammer claiming to have kidnapped her daughter, and threatening to kill her.

The woman said the call came Sept. 13 in the middle of the day, from a Mexican area code, when her daughter normally would have been at school.

"This man asked for me by name and then he said, 'We have your daughter. We've kidnapped her,'" she told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik. "She's in a van and are you going to help your daughter?"

The woman, who asked that Petchenik conceal her identity, told Petchenik she could hear the sound of a young woman screaming for help and the man, who had a Latin-sounding accent, told her he’d kill her daughter if she didn’t help.

“I was thinking my daughter is home because there was no school that day and I’m trying to get upstairs as fast as I can,” she said. “In the meantime, I’m thinking did she take the dog out? Did someone grab her off the street?”

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To her relief, her daughter was safe and sound in her bedroom.

“I said ‘Thank you, Jesus’ and I hung up the phone,” she said. “I was just so shaken up. I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, how did they know who I was?'”

Johns Creek Police Captain Chris Byers told Petchenik the woman did exactly what she should have done: hang up and call the police. He suspects the caller probably got basic information about the woman off social media.

“Lock it down. Protect it. Be very careful what you say,” he said. “Be very limited about what you say about your kids.  Where they go to school, posting pictures of them at their schools and things of that nature.”

Police told Petchenik there’s likely little they can do because the call originated outside of the United States.

“There are a hundred other scenarios that make you worry as a parent but this is not one you really worry about in Johns Creek,” the would-be victim said. “I hope there’s a place in hell for people who do this.”