Cape PD clarifies response in Facebook flap regarding call of suspicious activity

Cape Girardeau police first denied but later acknowledged on Facebook that a woman had reported seeing two suspicious men, who appeared to be coming after her, outside the Target store last Friday.

The issue sparked controversy on Facebook, with some people commenting they thought the woman was making up the story after the initial comment from police.

But Gabrielle Mitchem, in a text Thursday to the Southeast Missourian, said her account was true.

The Farmington, Missouri, area resident posted that she reported the incident to police immediately after the incident.

But police initially said they never received such a report.

Police posted on the department's website that "we are aware of a post circulating (on) social media regarding a female posting that she was almost a possible victim of an alleged attempted abduction at Target in Cape Girardeau at 10 a.m. on Friday June 7, 2019."

Police added, "We've received several inquiries about this post. We have checked with our communications unit and our on-duty officers (who were also on-duty during this alleged incident). There was no such incident reported to the Cape Girardeau Police Department."

That prompted criticism from Mitchem, who insisted her story was true.

On Wednesday, police reported they had received such a call.

"Upon further research, we discovered that a call was received that two males ran through the parking lot and jumped into a vehicle. The caller did not request a response from police at the time and as a result it did not show up on our dispatching software when we originally researched the call. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused but still do not believe there is a threat to the public," the department posted on Facebook.

In text messages to the newspaper, Mitchem said she never said she was almost abducted. "We have no idea what those men's intentions were. We just thought it was suspicious and wanted people to be aware," she wrote.

She posted on Facebook the men had climbed into a car and "sped off in my direction."

Mitchem said her husband, who was waiting for her on a bench with their nearly 1-year-old son, saw the men exit the Target store and called her cellphone to warn her. She posted that she ran to her vehicle, jumped in and locked the doors.

Mitchem decried what she described as "awful" comments made about her on Facebook after police initially said they received no report of such an incident.

"We didn't have any negative comments until CGPD reported there wasn't a call made before checking thoroughly," she texted. "They corrected their original statement but the damage was already done."

Cape Girardeau police Sgt. Joey Hann told the Southeast Missourian by text that Mitchem "declined the opportunity to file a report and did not give her name."

Mitchem previously posted on Facebook that she and her husband did not file an official police report because "we didn't think we needed to since a crime wasn't committed."

Hann wrote that the information that Mitchem provided to police "would not substantiate any kidnapping report."

According to Hann, Mitchem made "an anonymous short call without enough information for a proper investigation."

Hann wrote, "We do receive such a large amount of anonymous and vague info that we are too overwhelmed to investigate them properly." Anyone who sees themselves as a victim of an attempted kidnapping should formally report the matter to police, he advised.

"Social media posts, the vast majority of which are proven to be completely false, take away from legitimate victims and important public information," Hann wrote.

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