Boy says mother ‘ran him over’ and left him on the side of the road before wrongly reporting kidnapping: police

A woman has been arrested after falsely reporting a kidnapping in which she left her son unattended on the side of a major road and let him run away at night after a tantrum, police said.

The incident began on Nov. 5 when authorities from the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office responded Louisiana responded to a report of a child reportedly abducted at approximately 1 a.m. near the area of ​​US 190 and Industrial Road in Eunice, Louisiana, according to a statement from the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office.

“The mother, Artasia Quantaya Viges, reported that individuals in an older model truck abducted her son while she was parked in the roadway and tending to a deflated tire,” authorities said.

However, almost immediately after police arrived on the scene, officers learned that the boy was found by citizens in the area who discovered him unattended in the parking lot of the Heinen Medical Clinic with abrasions to his knees, police said.

“The child told officers that his mother had ‘run him over’ and left him on the side of the road,” authorities said. The child was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment. Due to this vast disparity in statements, the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office juvenile detectives were called in to investigate.”

“A subsequent interview with Artasia Viges revealed the terrible truth; There was no kidnapping and a young child was left unattended on a major road and allowed to run off during the night,” police said. What started as a disagreement between a mother and a child became a bizarre reaction when the child threw a tantrum.”

Police said that when Viges pulled the car over, the child – “apparently not properly restrained” – jumped out of the car before it came to a stop, resulting in injuries to the child’s knees.

“The mother chose to leave the child out of the car so he could run away in the dark along the highways,” police continued. “The mother admitted to detectives that she did not try to chase after him and eventually lost sight of him.

Viges was subsequently arrested and the investigation into the incident is currently ongoing.