Cape Town - An 18-year-old girl has landed in trouble after she lied to cops about being kidnapped and almost sold as a sex slave.
The matric pupil apparently created the fake story after she stayed out for an entire night to party with her boyfriend and friends, and was looking for an excuse to tell her parents and teachers.
In the elaborate lie, the girl claimed she was held in a shack in Heinz Park by “foreign black men” on Sunday night and was going to be sold as a sex slave along with 10 other girls.
The Grade 12 pupil from a high school in Athlone was caught out by Manenberg detective, Sergeant Darryl van Noie.
Acting station commander, Colonel Sanele Zama, said they wasted valuable resources investigating the “shocking” case.
“The teen was brought to the station on Monday by her parents after her alleged ordeal.
“In her statement, she claimed she was walking down Zuurberg Road (in Heideveld) on Sunday shortly after 7pm when a man put a cloth on her face and she passed out,” Zama explains.
She woke up on Monday morning in a shack with 10 other girls whose hands and feet were tied with ropes and she saw two “black foreign men”.
“She says there was a commotion outside the shack and the men went out and that is when she spoke to the other girls and they said they were being shipped at 3pm to other countries where they would be sold as sex slaves,” said Zama.
The girl claimed she still had money and her cellphone on her and managed to escape, but got a shock when she realised the shack was “in Heinz Park”.
She then “ran for her life” and boarded a taxi to Vangate Mall.
“Her parents were concerned that she may have been raped and went to a doctor but was referred to the police station for a J88 form,” added Zama.
Meanwhile, social media was abuzz with alerts about the “abduction”, causing panic in the communities.
Zama added: “When Van Noie questioned her, he told her that the story does not make sense and when interrogated, she came out with a story that she was writing an exam on Monday but had gone to a party with a boy and stayed out the whole night and needed something to tell her parents.”
Zama said the girl was released on a warning but warned: “Making false statements is very serious and children can be charged with perjury.”