Reported Child Abduction Made Up

A report of two children being abducted from a Hudson Valley elementary school turned out to be made up.

On Thursday at 12:55 p.m., Ulster County 911 received a report that two children had been abducted from Woodstock Day School, in the Town of Saugerties.

The person who called in the child abduction had reportedly flagged down a car traveling on Rock City Road in the Town of Woodstock. The motorist provided the person with a cellphone to dial 911 to report the abduction.  The person reported that two children had been taken from the school and provided a vehicle description as well as the license plate number of the vehicle the abductor was driving. The person than handed the phone back to the motorist who left the area.

Saugerties Police placed Woodstock Day School on lockdown. A head count was completed, which resulted in all students and faculty members being accounted for.

At the same time, Woodstock Police responded to the area where the 911 call was made from. Police then located and identified the caller as 21-year-old Justin P Garnsey, of Phoenicia.

Around the same time, New York State Police and other officials located and stopped the alleged abductor’s vehicle on Route 375 in Woodstock.  Police observed that there were no children in the car, and the driver was alone.

An investigation by Woodstock Police determined that Garnsey, the man who called in the abduction, allegedly made the entire story up. Police also learned that the vehicle Garnsey claimed abducted the children was actually the vehicle that stopped to allow Garnsey to call 911.

Garnsey was charged with falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor. He was arraigned in the Woodstock Town Court and remanded to the Ulster County Jail in Lieu of $5,000 bail.