Bradenton boy claimed he was abducted and then released. Cops say he made it up

An 11-year-old boy has admitted that he was never abducted as he told deputies on Thursday but that he made up the story, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

The boy had claimed that at about 5:20 p.m. Thursday, he was playing in his front yard in the Southwood Village neighborhood in Bayshore Gardens when a man driving by stopped and told him to get into the car. He grabbed the boy by the wrist, forced him into his SUV and drove off.

The boy claimed that the man stopped a block later, let him out and he ran home to told his father.

The sheriff’s office made public the reported abduction on Thursday and had been searching for a suspect.

But on Friday, the boy admitted to detectives that he had made up the story.