When Aesop wrote his fable “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” the moral of the story was to never tell a lie. Unfortunatley for two Bradley students, crying wolf may land them in front of the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office.
On Nov. 8, 2013, the Bradley University Police Department sent a safety alert to students regarding a male student approached by three unknown males in the 1800 block of Callender Avenue. The student was robbed at knifepoint and the suspects fled the scene.
Less than four hours later, students received a safety alert update stating the incident had been fabricated, and no crime was committed.
Likewise, on Aug. 25, students received a safety alert regarding a female student that was approached and robbed by an unknown male with a knife. Unlike the Nov. 8 incident, the female victim provided a description of the alleged robber.
However, three days later, a safety alert update was sent to students stating the incident was fabricated.
BUPD Chief Brian Joschko said each police report filed is investigated by police officers regardless of how significant or insignificant an incident may or may not seem.
“We have to investigate any and all claims,” Joschko said. “If you were the victim of a crime and anything happened, regardless of whether or not it was far-fetched, you’d want us to investigate that and to find the bad person.”
Joschko said police investigate each case thoroughly, so they can detect when something is off with a victim’s account of events.
“In the process of investigating, if someone is fabricating a story it usually begins to fall apart on them because things don’t add up,” he said. “It starts to all come out over the course of different interviews as we try to piece together all the different aspects.”
Under Illinois state law, filing a false police report is a class 4 felony. Joschko said that students who commit this crime are referred to the University Student Arbitration Board and are additionally assessed by the State’s Attorney’s Office for the possibility of charges.
“In the case of the [Aug. 25] incident, the young woman very quickly admitted she fabricated the incident once she was presented with the facts,” Joschko said. “She was given a notice to appear before the State Attorney’s Office.”
To file a police report, call 911, or call BUPD at 309-677-2800
