The children of an NYPD officer who claimed a man was stalking them over the weekend recanted their story on Monday, according to police and a law enforcement source.
The children, an 8-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, admitted they made the story up after police released surveillance images of the alleged suspect Monday morning and a man turned himself in for questioning later in the day, police said.
The man was found not to be a threat to the children, a law enforcement source said, and was released from custody without any charges.
On Sunday, the children told investigators that a man followed them, stood in front of their house and asked them questions about where they sleep during multiple encounters on Friday and Saturday, police said. They also wrote a note that read, “Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute,” and claimed that the man left it in their mailbox, a law enforcement source said.
It remained unclear Tuesday what the man was doing outside the children’s home and how the NYPD vetted the siblings’ stories, which involved detailed accounts of multiple interactions with the alleged suspect, including one with a school bus matron.
The children’s parents were not home during the times that the children claimed to have interacted with the man, the source said.
With Nicole Brown
