Man allegedly made up child abduction story involving dead son to get stolen car back

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis man was arrested after police say he lied about a child abduction involving his young son - who died years ago.

According to authorities, Ronald Sanders called police Sunday saying that his car had been stolen by three men from the Exxon gas station on South Bellevue.  He claimed that his 2-year-old son was inside the car at the time.

Officers noted that Sanders waited an hour after the crime to report it to police.

After an undisclosed amount of time, officers said Sanders admitted to police that he lied about his son being in the car. In fact, his son wasn't even alive, having been killed several years ago in a car accident.

He said he hoped the false information would lead to the quick recovery of his vehicle.

"That's crazy for him to lie. He shouldn't have lied like that," neighbor Shavon Grayer told WREG.

Sanders was charged with a felony count of false reporting.

No one answered at Sanders' house when we went to try and get his side of the story.

In September 2018, WREG took a deeper look into the number of false reports that were made to Memphis Police since 2016. At that time, they received 316 entries.

Lieutenant Colonel Dennis McNeil says filing a false report is a huge waste of resources.

"If we going on a wild goose chase, you have just taken our proficiency and clearance rate down. So, it's not fair to the people who are not filing false reports. It's not fair to the victims who need our time and assistance."