An alleged broad-daylight kidnapping that left Santa Rosa on edge was a prank, say Santa Rosa police. This comes several hours after the California Highway Patrol issued an Amber Alert across parts of California based on reports that a 15-year-old Vallejo girl had been grabbed and forced into a vehicle at a Santa Rosa gas station. Police say the incident occurred Wednesday afternoon.

    

Lieutenant Jeneane Kucker with the Santa Rosa Police Department, said that not everything was what it seemed. 

 

"It was a prank on her, by her boyfriend and another male friend, who grabbed her from behind, so she didn't readily see who it was," Kucker told KRCB Thursday afternoon. "By the time she got placed into this van, she then very quickly realized that she was amongst friends and her boyfriend...and then a decision was made to travel down to the Los Angeles area throughout the night to go to a family get together, apparently of her boyfriend's, in the Los Angeles-Anaheim area. Eventually, they made their way back to Vallejo, where she lives and she was dropped off at about 8 o'clock this morning."

 

Kucker said police response was delayed several hours as the girl's parents didn't reach out to authorities until after she returned to Vallejo. Language, cultural and translation issues also contributed to the delay in resolving the incident.