FL Girl, 11, Faked Kidnapping Call For YouTube Challenge: Police

VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL — An 11-year-old Port Orange girl faces felony charges after Volusia County authorities said she falsely reported that her friend was kidnapped by an armed man in a white van.

According to the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, the girl was charged with making a false police report, a felony, and misuse of 911, a misdemeanor. Authorities said she is being held at the Volusia Regional Juvenile Detention Center.

Patch is not naming the girl because she is a minor.

According to authorities, the girl texted 911 around 9:45 a.m. Wednesday to report that her 14-year-old friend had been abducted and that she was following the suspect in a blue Jeep. The girl said her friend in a white van headed south on Interstate 95.

For the next 90 minutes, authorities said the girl texted updates to police, including a description of the suspect and that he had a gun.

Meanwhile, deputies tracked the cell phone used to text 911 to a home on Poppy Lane in Port Orange, where they located the girl. According to authorities, the girl told deputies she got the idea to prank 911 through a YouTube challenge and thought it "would be funny."

The sheriff's office also body camera footage of the arrest to its Facebook page. In the footage, four officers surround the girl outside her home while she stands handcuffed in the driveway, her face blurred. The girl can be heard saying, "I'm not going to do this again," while an officer says, "This is going to be an opportunity for you to turn this into a learning experience."

"This kind of prank activity is dangerous – we're going to investigate every incident but today it wasted valuable resources that might have helped someone else who legitimately needed our help," Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said in a statement.