North Bay police were sent on a wild goose chase this morning over a fake kidnapping. It started with a 911 call to North Bay police around midnight from a man saying he’d been kidnapped at gunpoint in Ottawa and driven to North Bay. The man told dispatch he was calling from his cell phone while his kidnapper wasn’t around. However the man then screamed and the line went dead.
Police triangulated the call and 21 city and OPP officers and a canine unit rushed to the scene. At around 3:00am Tuesday police found the alleged kidnapper by the North Bay Regional Health Centre and it turns out he was also the victim. A 49-year-old Ottawa man is now charged with public mischief and obstructing police.