11-Year-Old's Prank Ends in Felony Charge

so there was a text message from someone saying they were behind a car their friend was kidnapped from a Chick-fil-A in Palm Coast and they were on the interstate behind the car everything on your phone is telling me that you made a phone call 911 but I didn't talk I'm because you did something [Applause] stupid on July 26 2023 Dispatchers in belua County receive urgent 911 texts from a driver who claims to be following an armed kidnappers van on the interstate when they trace the phone however they learn the messages are coming from a residence

in Port Orange turning a plea for help into an unexpected lesson in consequences I'm telling you this right now you're going to take this as a lesson at 11 years old that if you do something stupid in the future you're going to enjoy those cuffs I'm not going to do this again the following report is based on official police records and the footage has mostly never been seen before until now it's just after 9:45 a.m. when 911 begins receiving texts from someone named Lily Lee comes she claims to be following a kidnappers van on the

interstate and updates are still pouring in belua County deputies multiple area police departments and a helicopter joined the Urgent search when they failed to locate the van a deputy tries calling the phone number that's been sending the text messages hello hello hello hello hi um is this the what's your name can you hear me hello I'm trying to reach the person I called 911 yeah can you hear me oh sh please leave your message for three voicemail it says RP confirming they are in a blue Jeep victim is in a white van they can see

they are being restrained through the window does at the turn around a new text message comes through including a detailed description of the suspect who's described as having brown hair and blue eyes how is she behind she's she's seeing this happen and she knows what color eyes he has that's weird brown brown hair and blue eyes but she's behind them like if she was like saw the incident or saw the witness of kidnapping or I mean like how would you even be following that know any of this yeah R confirming they in a blue Jeep

victim and a white van of course it's a white van like it just yeah you know what I mean I'm not saying this by any means but it's just yeah I've had calls like this before their suspicions about the text messages are all but confirmed when a GPS trace on the phone comes back to a residence in Port Orange indicating the texter is not traveling on the highway as they claimed deputies quickly head to the residents to investigate hi there how you doing is this your residence sir this is do you have a daughter or

a child at the home named by Lily Lee no no anybody home yeah my wife my kids who just got home from uh Pennsylvania I have an Ava and a Mikey a a Mikey yep would you like to see them the deputies follow him to his house where he informs his wife what's going on it was a 91 one yeah so somebody called in or well they sorry someone texted in 911 that someone was getting kidnapped and they were on the interstate but then when they went and did like a a location on the phone

the address was showing up here as their daughter Ava steps into the garage her phone rings the deputy answers it leading to a shocking conclusion hello hold on who's this County Sheriff's Office all right cool this is dep as to be the Sheriff's Office oh good you got her yep all right okay for D yep I got both her parents here yeah we're going to ask the sheriff to go away in a second thanks byebye what happened I'm so let me see this phone yeah so all these all these other numbers so there's a phone

call out to 911 there's a phone call out to 911 what time call it there's 911 again right there these numbers calling back in are no caller ID well there's three different times that 911 was called out from this phone 9:30 a.m. y that was the initial call twice I didn't mean to call that cuz I but you did reports show that the number belonging to Ava dialed 911 at 9:30 when asked where the emergency is a female identified as possibly a juvenile responded I'm sorry I dialed the wrong number the same phone number would

later begin texting 911 to report the cas kidnapping when did I'm just so confused I'm sorry when did you guys you got a message about an interstate so there was a text message from someone saying they were behind a car could I call this back who was kidnapped their friend was kidnapped from a Chick-fil-A and Palm Coast and they were on the interstate behind the car what time is this to this is like yeah this is today that's this going 230 in the morning okay so we weren't we were here the whole time since 2:30

we were on the interestate coming home showing Pennsylvania right you called we we showed up here like 210 215 okay and we went to bed but these these 911 calls this morning you were calling 911 you were don't look surprised you did on your phone did they say anything to you no one said anything to you did you Eva you have to explain what happened here something's going on what did you know what do you know Mikey go inside a get your shoes on come out here I didn't hear anything close the door you're not

in trouble just need to know what happened I need to know and understand because this is like weird because we got to make sure that there's not somebody that's being kidnapped on the interstate we're trying to find them and open your mouth if you said something on the phone I didn't say anything everything on your phone is telling me that you made a phone call 911 but I didn't talk while one Deputy heads to her Cruiser she greets officers from the Port Orange Police Department who have just arrived at the hey guys how's it going

oh I just trying to make hands and Tails that damn call there's many notes in it my God yeah we're trying to figure it out we're with the parents and the daughter and I guess the daughter did have we pulled up the call log and she had she did call 911 so so the whole armed kidnapping thing and all that stuff is bogus or there was no text evidence when we looked through it so I don't know if she deleted it real quick or if or if it's like through through an app yeah seems it's

probably just this sting thing she's like she's like 10 years old so wow yeah while aa's parents demand an explanation deputies prepare to mirandize the 11-year-old who has yet to fully grasp the gravity of the situation you just lied to the police and mommy and daddy you just lied to everybody we have three sh here stupidity tell them what you just said to us open your mouth I'm telling you open your mouth she's going to read you something and then we're going to ask you some questions what's your name AA how old are you AA

all right Miss Ava you have the right to remain silent anything you say can be used against you in court you have the right to talk to a lawyer for advice before we ask you any questions and to have the lawyer present during any questioning you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed for you uh before my questioning if you wishing her right because you did something stupid let me explain something here okay you you can cry about this what you've done here is a felony okay it's a felony crime and you probably had

20 law enforcement officers at least a helicopter and all looking all running with lights and siren on high speed to try to to try to apprehend or try to stop a serious forceable felony from happening do you know what happens if one of those officers crash and and gets killed on the way to responding to something that that you did is a joke so you better take this serious under pressure from both her father and the deputy Ava offers an excuse for her actions which doesn't sit well with the deputy Eva you need to tell

the exact truth I don't want a story I don't care what it is I want the exact you can't you can't make this go away by being quiet the only thing you're going to end up with this going to happen to you is you're going to end up in a pair of handcuffs going to our our Juvenile Facility I'm not going to make men any words with you that's a a very distinct possibility what can happen here today don't look at your mother she didn't have any part in this this was all you yesterday my

my brother said something that I just made me talk I and doing all was he part of planning this with you no he just said it and then what did he say he said1 this is your brother well we can when we're done we you wa a minute no this morning and I so you're trying to blame this on your brother did he was he was he with you when you made this call no okay was he with you when you made these texts no okay then then then you did this you were on your

own for this and your your brother 7 years old you're not going to blame your seven-year-old brother for this this was all your decision okay to call 911 to do what what did he say to call 911 call 911 so did so can I ask what if he told you to go up on the roof and jump off the roof would you do that so what's the difference deputies will soon discover the startling truth behind Ava's fabricated story for now aa's mother raises concerns about recent questionable activity on Ava's phone but it does little to

impact the situation I have something really weird with that with that phone when we first got that there was the phone kep bringing nonstop ringing bringing in to me and I was picking it up and there was like people talking and like I'm like hello hello and like nonstop like I mean every 4 seconds there was a poll coming in with random numbers and I didn't know them and I was saying block contact block contact like as soon as we got that phone number that has nothing that has nothing to do with what went on

today questions about her intentions lead to a harsh reality check from the deputy who forces AA to consider the possible consequences of the false report what were you planning on happening out of this but what did you think was going to happen when you said somebody was kidnapped and somebody had a gun what did you think was going down did did you have any thoughts about how many how how much of the law enforcement resources in this area you were going to take up by by doing that probably never thought of that right did you

think of the the the men and women that have families at home that are driving 90 or 100 miles hour with their license iron on trying to trying to save somebody who's a victim of an arm kidnapping that they could be involved in a in a traffic crash and be seriously injured or killed because you wanted to make a joke does that seem funny to you would that be funny if that happened cuz I can tell you that would be even more serious than what you're you're looking at right now you physically see your father

walk up to Sheriff's military everybody thank you for your service and then you do like this though it wasn't captured on camera reports state that Ava admitted to getting the idea to prank 911 from a YouTube challenge and a deputy attempts to get more details where was this video that you saw where was it on YouTube do you remember who the Creator was or who the poster was what it was about any all what do you mean by all of this this is in what so it was a video about the Palm Coast Chick-fil-A that's

it that's all the video was about gotta so yep so you saw a video that somebody made about how fun it would be to call 911 or text 911 and say somebody's got a gun somebody's trying to get get hurt you thought it'd be fun to recreate that is that what you're telling me okay okay however Ava is about to realize an apology won't be enough to escape the consequences meanwhile one Deputy reveals that he was able to reach Ava by phone just before their arrival and got a less than friendly response from the young

girl 27 minutes she lied to the dispatcher or the call taker over text and then when I caught her up she told me to F myself and stop responding caught her up like got her caught up like hey you know what's up the jig's up that's when she started deling more based on Ava's statements deputies decide there's enough probable cause to arrest Ava and prepare to take the 11-year-old into custody I'm not going to the car [Applause] here a dentist deep breath don't make this don't make this she'll be out there D hurs so stop

listen to me AAA stop struggling okay they're not going to hurt yeah they're not going to hurt you listen carefully what's going to happen here no one's going to hurt you you're going to sit in the car for now okay if you go somewhere what it's going to involve is taking pictures taking fingerprints and then they're going to call your parents to come and get you so don't make the situation any any worse they'll they'll be up shortly after that go in the car no you can't go in the car can't it can't it just

can't happen I'm telling you this right now you're going to take this as a lesson at 11 years old that if you do something stupid in the future you're going to enjoy those cuffs I'm not going to do this de Ava is placed into the back of the police car where her father delivers a few hard truths just uh warning you you're not going to see for a couple hours they're going to be bringing you into a building fingerprinting you doing all sorts of stupid for your stupid your life just changed kid over a phone

call your life just changed minutes later the reality of the situation continues to have an emotional impact on her parents this the best punishment for her right now sucks for us this is the best thing for her because she dosn't get it it sucks for us I work play off with you to keep this kid doing stuff normal like we did as kids and this is the she does according to a statement from the valua county sheriff's office 11-year-old Ava was charged with making a false police report concerning the use of a firearm in a

violent manner a felony and misuse of 911 a misdemeanor after being processed at the Family Resource Center she was later transferred to the valua regional Juvenile Detention Center in Daytona Beach Florida an experience she is unlikely to forget we requested more information about her case from the valua County juvenile court and they said nothing is releasable