Missing teen behind Twitter hoax found

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 21:25:00 +0000

Kara Alongi, the 16-year-old girl now infamous for faking her own kidnapping via Twitter, has been found.

Clark , N.J., policeman Alan Scherb released the following statement:

The Clark Police Department is pleased to announce that at approximately 4:30 p.m. on October 2, 2012 Kara Alongi was found safe and unharmed. She was discovered by troopers with the New Jersey State Police walking along the side of the Turnpike near Exit 1. As dictated by protocol she was taken to a local hospital in South Jersey for an evaluation. Her family was notified shortly after she was found and they were reunited at the hospital yesterday evening. A detective from the Clark Police Department also responded to the hospital as a standard part of a missing juvenile investigation.

Scherb said that Alongi returned home early this morning, but the police continue to investigate her whereabouts for the past two days.

Meet Kara Alongi, the girl who tweeted “Wolf”

Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:16:00 +0000

Sometimes -- just sometimes -- the Internet surprises us and does the right thing. This seemed, at first, to be the case with 16-year-old Kara Alongi, who tweeted an urgent message from her home in New Jersey last night, at around 6:20: "There is someone in my hour ecall 911." Then "the Internets" picked up the story and worked its viral magic, creating the hashtag #helpfindkara with support coming in the form of prayers, well-wishes and a PSA. The teen has since amassed over 100K followers.

But according to Patch, Alongi did not call the police, nor did her original Twitter followers. Her parents did. Police responded immediately, but discovered, oddly, that it's likely Alongi staged the whole thing:

The investigation quickly revealed a number of inconsistencies in the teen's statement. Specifically it was discovered that a person called a local taxi company asking for a car at Alongi's address around the same time the Twitter message was posted. Later, the driver positively identified Alongi as the fare he picked up and said he drove her to the Rahway Train Station, dropping her off a few minutes later.

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Missing teen behind Twitter hoax found

Meet Kara Alongi, the girl who tweeted “Wolf”