MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Hollywood woman was arrested Monday after police said she falsely claimed a man abducted her 3-year-old grandchild during a carjacking.
Antoinette Rowan, 37, faces a charge of making a false police report.
According to the arrest report, Rowan admitted that she lied about the abduction because she wanted the police to find her car faster and arrest the thief.
Rowan had originally told police that she made arrangements for the man, later identified as 32-year-old Antonio Monzon, to conduct some kind of "transaction" on Sunday night. However, Rowan told authorities Monzon took the car with the boy still in the back seat.
The boy was later found safe at his home in Hollywood, but Rowan said her black Hyundai Accent was still missing.
"The call originally came in as a child abduction," Miami-Dade police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta said. "A car was taken with a 3-year-old child inside, and that's something that we cannot take lightly."
Rowan said she picked Monzon up at his home and stopped at a Walmart in Cutler Bay, and then the two eventually pulled up to the gas station at Southwest 220th Street and 112th Avenue.
When Rowan stepped inside, Monzon allegedly hopped in the driver's seat and sped off. Video from the gas station's security cameras shows Rowan running after the car as Monzon left.
Police are still searching for Monzon. He faces a charge of grand theft auto.
Rowan declined to speak to Local 10 News reporter Trent Kelly as she was released from jail Tuesday.