No Stranger Danger In Channahon Or Minooka: Police

CHANNAHON, IL - This week, a number of people on Facebook thought they were doing a service for their friends by sharing a story about a purported stranger danger incident in Channahon and Minooka. But here's the truth, there is no stranger danger lurking around Channahon and Minooka. As it turned out, the misguided social media posters were passing around a Chicago television news story from September of 2016. People were not paying attention to the date when the story appeared on ABC7, September 9, 2016.

So on Thursday, the Channahon Police Department decided it needed to take a proactive stance to stop the false information from growing like a weed on social media. The police agency issued its own statement on Facebook declaring, "An article from ABC7 News from 2016 has begun to recirculate through Facebook. The article highlighted concerns from an investigation about a stranger approaching children in Minooka and Channahon. This is an out of date news story. There is no known threat or recent stranger incident.

"Please take some time to review your likes or postings before publishing," Channahon's Police Department emphasized.

Channahon Patch spoke with Deputy Police Chief Adam Bogart on Thursday afternoon. He said the department felt it needed to "dispel the rumors that had no validity today" around Channahon and Minooka because the outdated news story was continuing to prompt several police calls for service.

According to Channahon, the investigation related to the ABC7 story from one year ago may have been resolved a while back by the Minooka Police Department without any arrests because the incident may have stemmed from a misunderstanding.

File image via Patch