Florida teen accused of faking his own abduction in elaborate ‘hoax’
www.independent.co.uk
Police launched an urgent search for Caden Speight, 17, believing him to be the victim of a shooting on September 25 before he was found

When the teen apparently vanished, his mother told police that she received a text from him which alleged that four Hispanic men had shot him before bundling him into a white van and driving away.

Before he vanished, local reports indicate that he was seen wearing a red “MAGA” hat.

Cops located his car near Marion County Airport, 80 miles from Orlando, and issued an Amber Alert to find the teen.

The teenager was later found “alive and well” on September 26.

However, Billy Woods, the Marion County Sheriff, now claims that the crime was an elaborate “hoax” devised by Speight.

In a social media video, Woods conceded that there were “red flags” early on in the case.

According to him, Speight “simply rode away towards Williston while the rest of us were left to think the worst, and my team was working in overdrive to solve this case.”

To continue the ruse, Caden, who had a handgun with him since the beginning of all of this, chose to shoot himself in the leg.

“There is zero chance that Caden’s gunshot wound came from any type of assailant,” he added.

An investigation involving local, state, and federal agencies found that Speight purchased a bicycle, a tent, and camping supplies before disappearing.

  • Lemminary@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    9 hours ago

    Sounds like Caden needs to watch some true crime to find out just how stupid he looked to anyone with at least two brain cells.

      • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.caEnglish
        6·
        7 hours ago

        Actually not. The only reason why we see these stories from Florida is because the state has unusual transparency laws on reporting offenses.

        This type of Florida man shit is taking place across the country we just don’t hear about it.

        • CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          31·
          6 hours ago

          Thats just a myth people on Reddit repeated over and over again believing it’s true. Wacky events get reported on wherever they occur. These wacky events just happen to occur most often in Florida. It has nothing to do with their “Sunshine law.”

          Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law, commonly called the Sunshine Law, passed in 1967. It requires that all meetings of any state, county, or municipal board or commission in Florida be open to the public, and declares that actions taken at closed meetings are not binding

          https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Sunshine_Law

          • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            3 hours ago

            Part of that lets journalists get enough details to publish quickly, before the story gets stale. We’re also the 3rd most populous state, 23 million people and some are going to get up to some weird shit.