PORT ST. LUCIE — The incident of a girl who may have been abducted Wednesday morning is now said to be a hoax, police announced about noon.

A police spokesman said there was no little girl.

There was “a lot of wasted resources today,” said Officer Tom Nichols, police spokesman, of all the law enforcement agencies that assisted with this search.

An Amber Alert was issued shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday for a girl police thought was abducted as she walked along Midtown Road near Port St. Lucie Boulevard earlier in the morning.

Two boys described the girl as being between 7 and 8 years old, white with dark hair. She was last seen wearing a blue skirt and a pink or purple shirt.

“After interviewing the boys for quite a few hours, they have recanted their story and said it was made up — it was a hoax,” Nichols said. “The only validity to it was there was an actual white van on Midtown (Road) here, everything after it about the girl bring abducted is in fact a hoax.”

Nichols said detectives are trying to find out why they made up such a story.

It’s not clear what school the boys attend.

Nichols suspects investigators will be speaking with the parents of the boys “to find out why they made up this story.” Nichols said it’s possible the kids could face criminal charges.

The Amber Alert had said the child might be in the company of two Hispanic males, approximately 20 to 30 years old with dark hair, both wearing blue or black T-shirts. It said they were thought to have been involved in the abduction and might be traveling in a white, possibly newer model panel van with t-style brushed aluminum rims.

Two 8- to 9-year-old boys walking to their bus stop at Southeast Pinero Road originally reported to police seeing a “suspicious van” driving south on Midtown Road about 7:25 a.m. when the van changed directions and went north. They said the van passed them and the occupants are thought to have taken the girl, according to police.

“They witnessed the van allegedly abduct this child,” Nichols said earlier during the search, adding the boys said the girl was kicking and screaming when they grabbed her and took off.

Police checked the public schools to make sure all the children are in school and no one was missing.

White vans were being stopped in hopes of finding the girl and police checked all sex offenders and/or predators in the area.

A flurry of law enforcement officers and vehicles descended on the area. A helicopter hovered over the area, at one point broadcasting information about the abduction and asking anyone with information to call 911.

Several law enforcement K-9 teams from throughout the state that were training in Martin County arrived at the scene to assist.

FORT PIERCE — A man suspected of being the “Red Striped Bandit” was arrested following a Monday armed robbery and is thought to be involved in a series of similar crimes stretching back to 2007, according to an affidavit released Tuesday by police.

Cedrick T. Beckwith, 26, of the 800 block of Georgia Avenue, faces a robbery with firearm charge in connection with the Monday evening incident at the Ramallah Food Market in the 3000 block of Orange Avenue. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — A 44-year-old man who threw darts at patrons of Mickey Finns bar and returned to the establishment after being kicked out was arrested, according to a recently released affidavit.

The bartender “cut off” serving drinks to Scott D. Leonard, of the 100 block of Southeast Todd Avenue, late Sunday or early Monday “due to Mr. Leonard’s behavior as he was throwing darts at other patrons.” (more…)

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A Fort Pierce man died Tuesday afternoon after the motorcycle he was riding crashed on a Georgia highway, according to Savannah-Chatham police.

At 3:25 p.m., first responders were called to the westbound lanes of Georgia 204 near Interstate 95 on a report of two people injured in a motorcycle crash, the Savannah Morning News reported. (more…)

PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council came close Monday afternoon to naming Assistant City Manager Jerry Bentrott to replace Don Cooper as the next city manager.

But Councilwoman Michelle Berger put the brakes on the move.

Mayor Patricia Christensen suggested the city enter into contract negotiations with Bentrott, 61, to replace Cooper, who’s resigning Jan. 8 after 20 years with the city.

At least two other council members, Vice Mayor Jack Kelly and Christopher Cooper, were ready to move forward with Christensen’s recommendation and begin negotiations, but Berger was not.

“I’m still in support of looking at a national search if for no other reason than to benchmark the talent that we currently have,” Berger said. “We have two great individuals that can step into the role. I have no doubt. But certainly part of what we should be looking at is making sure that they are the right person.”

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ST. LUCIE COUNTY — There are almost 360 sex offenders living within a mile of St. Lucie County public schools and there are about 135 sex offenders living within a mile of a Martin County public school.

And along the Treasure Coast, almost 670 sex offenders and predators legally live within a mile of local schools as of Oct. 29, a Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers analysis of Florida Department of Law Enforcement data shows. Expanding the search of the FDLE database almost doubles the number in some cases. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — About $200,000 worth of marijuana was seized Thursday during a grow house bust by the Fort Pierce Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, according to a police news release.

Police with the DEA arrested and charged Michael Philip Carty, 44, and his wife, Tiffany Dawn Carty, 32, both of the 1100 block of Granada Avenue, with cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. As of Thursday evening, both were in St. Lucie County Jail in lieu of $10,500 bail. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — Two treasure Coast scientists have solved a mystery that for decades has been wrapped up in the coils of a conch shell.

With less than two years of research and experimentation, Megan Davis and Héctor Acosta-Salmón, both scientists at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, have developed a technique to culture, or grow, pearls inside queen conchs. (more…)

FORT PIERCE — A local man was arrested after fleeing a deputy and bailing out of a Buick in which about 50 rocks of crack cocaine were found, according to an affidavit released Wednesday.

Eliezer Geneus, 22, faces charges including cocaine possession with intent to sell, driving while license suspended habitual offender and obstruction without violence following the Tuesday incident. (more…)

St. Lucie County school board members decided unanimously tonight to allow teacher Wendy Portillo to return to teaching more than a year after the May 2008 incident where she led kindergartners to vote a 5-year-old boy out of their class.
School officials say Portillo, who had been suspended and stripped of her tenure, is expected to teach science and reading to sixth graders at Allapattah K-8.
She was Alex Barton’s kindergarten teacher at Morningside Elementary when she led his classmates to vote on whether he should stay in class after he’d been disruptive. Doctors later diagnosed Alex with Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.

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