MEMPHIS, Tenn. — With temperatures in the upper 90s Saturday, Shelby County emergency crews into panic mode when they got a call saying a 3-year-old child was locked in a car that wasn’t running.
But it turns out there never was a child in the car. Authorities say Skylar Johnson-Settles made it all up because she’d locked her keys in the car and was in a hurry.
“We pulled a number of resources off of the streets to respond to this cry for help that a child had been locked in the car in 90-degree-weather,” said SCSO spokesperson Earle Farrell.
It was just after 3:15 Saturday afternoon when authorities pulled up to the home on Royston ready to save the child. Deputies said an urgent emergency response went out, meaning law enforcement disregarded other service calls. Getting that child out of the car was their top priority.
They quickly found that no one was locked in the car.
Deputies took Johnson-Settles into custody. She is now facing charges of misusing 911 and false reporting, which is a felony.
She has no address listed on court documents.
We knocked on the door where the 911 call came from, but no one answered.
What is clear: Deputies say the bogus call is costly. Not just for Johnson-Settles or law enforcement, but for anyone else who needed help.
“What if there was someone else that was really having a health problem?” said Farrell.
Johnson-Settles made her first appearance in court on Monday.