Woman facing charges in robbery hoax at TJ Maxx

ROSWELL, Ga. — Roswell police aren't laughing after they said a Woodstock woman played a practical joke that caused police to swarm a local clothing store.

Mia Treadwell, 19, faces reckless conduct charges after police said she texted her boyfriend that the TJ Maxx store where she works on Woodstock Road was being robbed and that a gunman was holding people hostage. When officers arrived, they quickly learned it was a hoax.

"It wasn't funny to us at all," Roswell Police Lt. James McGee told Channel 2's Mike Petchenik. "We have people responding in emergency mode. We could have law enforcement officers in jeopardy."

McGee said police arrested Treadwell because of the unnecessary cost to taxpayers and the alarm to the community.

"Not the thing to do, especially not in this day and time," said McGee. "Hopefully she'll learn from this."

Treadwell contacted Petchenik by phone after he visited her Woodstock home for comment.

"It was all a misunderstanding and this is very embarrassing," she said. "The Roswell Police Department took this to another level it wasn't supposed to go. I apologized to the officers and told them I was very sorry."

Treadwell said she had been texting back and forth with her boyfriend playing pranks on each other, and that she mentioned to him she thought the place was being robbed because the back door alarm at the store kept going off. She said she sent the text and then put her phone away because she was at work, never thinking her boyfriend would get concerned and call police.

"I'm not the type of person that gets in trouble. I've never been in trouble before," she said. "I'm not a bad person. All this was taken to a level it wasn't supposed to go to."

WSBTV