MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Authorities canceled a City Watch alert Tuesday for a 20-year-old who was reportedly kidnapped from a home at gunpoint.
According to initial reports, several men arrived at a home in the 4400 block of Wooddale around 10 p.m. Monday and asked for Carmelo Gabriel.
However, police said later Tuesday that he was not kidnapped and no one is facing charges.
“They came up to my door asking me a few questions and stuff. They wanted to know what I knew about him and what did I see,” neighbor Roberto Cardenas said.
Cardenas tells us officers came to his apartment asking if he had seen his neighbor and what he knew about him.
A report filed by Gabriel’s sister says the two were doing laundry at the complex Monday night when five men showed up. One of the suspects who was armed with a gun reportedly threatened her and forced her brother to leave with them.
She called police thinking she had witnessed an abduction.
Thinking her brother was in danger, officers didn’t wast time to start a search.
But here’s where things turn the corner.
As detectives were asking the Gabriel’s neighbor, Cardenas, if he had seen anything his mother’s phone started going off.
Cardenas says it was Gabriel who called his mother on Facebook messenger.
He claims he has no idea why he would contact her. But with police standing in front of him, the timing was spot on.
“The investigator was like, ‘Are you serious? Let me talk with him.’ The investigator on the phone with him was like, ‘I need you to tell me where you’re at so I can send a car over there. We have a helicopter out here that’s trying to look for you,” Cardenas said.
Officers confirmed that Gabriel is safe. They say he told them he was never kidnapped.
Those we talked to at the complex are thankful it was all just a mix-up.
Police told us those who called them will not face any charges because they reported what they thought had occurred.
