This article was originally published in The Examiner on Feb. 16, 2017.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
Beaumont Police arrested a mother and daughter Thursday, Feb. 9 who they said staged a kidnapping to hide the fact that they were missing money.
Beaumont Police Detectives filed charges Wednesday, Feb. 8 against Tiffany Shanta Hawkins, 25, of Beaumont, and her mother, Brandy Shantha Springer, 38, of Beaumont, for filing a false report with the Beaumont Police spokesperson Officer Carol Riley said in a news release.
Hawkins and Springer staged the kidnapping Thursday, Feb. 2, when Springer duct-taped Hawkins and her 7-year-old daughter, took pictures of the two, and then locked them in the trunk of a car.
They reported the “kidnapping” to Beaumont Police, Riley said in the release, causing multiple officers and 911 dispatchers to be involved in “a lengthy search.”
Beaumont Police found Hawkins and her daughter on Potter Street in Beaumont.
Detectives took statements from everyone involved. Once investigators found evidence that they believed proved the kidnapping was staged, they confronted Springer and Hawkins with the evidence.
Both mother and daughter admitted the “kidnapping” was a hoax, Riley said.
Springer and Hawkins told police that they staged the incident and sent pictures to Hawkins’ boyfriend because they were trying to explain away missing money.
“They committed a crime that tied up a lot of manpower that could have been used doing other things,” Riley said in a press conference. “the worst part of it was, they involved a 7-year-old child in this.
“Whether the little girl knew she was being kidnapped or not, being duct-taped and put in the back of a trunk, I’m sorry, there’s just no excuse for anything like that.”
Although filing a false police report is a Class B misdemeanor in the state of Texas, Riley said she wants the community to know that the Beaumont Police Department considers this a serious offense.
“Sometimes when we make up a story, it just gets bigger and bigger and starts causing more problems,” Riley said. “She was trying to get herself out of a [financial] bind, and came up with this scheme that just went out of control.”
“There’s absolutely no reason to come up with a scheme like this, tying up officers and including a 7-year-old,” she said, adding that Beaumont Police plans to follow through and pursue these charges against Springer and Hawkins.
Hawkins gave police a written apology letter, in which she said that there “will not be a repeat incident,” “what I did was wrong” and “I’m truly sorry.”
Beaumont Police has received other false reports, but Riley said she cannot remember an incident quite like this before.
CPS was notified about this incident and will be investigating, she said.
Eleanor Skelton 