Emporia Police are using a call from Thursday night to illustrate the wrong paths social media can take when it comes to law enforcement matters.
Officers responded to the 10 block of Merchant around 10:15 pm for a dual dispatch call, with one caller reporting that a man was being jumped in his driveway and another saying a registered sex offender had tried to drag a young girl into his home for the purpose of raping her.
Investigators determined the second incident did not happen. Between 8:30 and 9 pm, three teenagers were walking in the 10 block of Merchant and were asked by a man to help move some furniture in the back yard of his home. They refused and left. Roughly 60 to 90 minutes later, the females told a group of older teenaged males and two 20-year-old males about the incident. They concluded the man was trying to lure the girls. The group of people went back to the house and confronted the man, who was hit in the face at least once.
Police Capt. Dave DeVries says social media postings are saying the man tried to drag a girl into his home and concerned citizens ran to her aid when that did not happen.
DeVries reminds residents social media postings “can take on a life of their own but frequently have little factual content.”
