Carjack victim allegedly exaggerated story to make police respond faster

A pizza deliveryman was carjacked at gunpoint but thought he needed to add something more to the story to get Philadelphia police to investigate, authorities said.

So he concocted a story about a 4-year-old nephew who was in the backseat of the car at the time two men made off with the vehicle, according to authorities.

Now, 22-year-old Marcus Fletcher is facing misdemeanor charges for allegedly filing a false report after a police search ended with the discovery of his stolen car with no child inside.

“[Fletcher] gave multiple accounts of how the robbery occurred and was unable to give a detailed description of the child who was abducted or his parents,” according to the police report. “After several hours of police investigation, the male admitted to lying about the child being abducted.”

Fletcher, of Olney, had called police around 10:25 p.m. on Monday to report his green Ford Escort was stolen at gunpoint while he was in the middle of making a delivery, authorities said.

Fletcher allegedly told police that while he spoke with someone he thought was a customer outside a house on the 4600 block of Sydenham Street, another man pointed a gun at him. The two assailants allegedly took Fletcher’s cellphone and wallet and drove off in his car, police said.

But when Fletcher recounted the incident to authorities, he described a 4-year-old nephew who “was inside his vehicle when it was car jacked,” the police report said.

Police distributed the information and located the vehicle “parked, locked and unoccupied” just a few blocks away on the 4300 block of North 16th Street.

Detectives who talked to Fletcher later discovered he made up the story because he was dissatisfied with their response the last time he was the victim of a robbery.

“[Fletcher] made reference to a prior robbery incident in which he indicated that police did not provide him with what he deemed as adequate service,” the police report said. “Therefore he made up the aforementioned story to watch the police work harder.”

The investigation into the robbery of Fletcher’s car remains active.