A 10-year-old boy who said earlier this week that he had been abducted has admitted that it was a hoax, Anoka County authorities said Thursday.

"After attempting to verify portions of the information provided, it has been determined that the abduction did not take place," Anoka County Sheriff's Cmdr. Paul Sommer said in a news release. "The child has now indicated that no abduction took place. Evidence consistent with no abduction has also been located and verified. … Thank you to members of the public who provided us with information to assist in this investigation."

On Monday evening, Anoka police received a report that the boy had been briefly abducted from the 600 block of Brisbin Street in Anoka. The report came after the child reportedly called his parents on his cellphone to say he had been abducted, then escaped at a Coon Rapids shopping center.

The child said he was walking on Brisbin when an unknown party grabbed him and placed him into a dark-colored cargo van. The child said that he pushed open a rear door and escaped in the parking lot of the Chipotle parking lot at Riverdale Crossing, then went to a nearby Buffalo Wild Wings, where he called his mother.

Sommer said the child had been home from school Monday and left home without his parents' permission. Authorities looked at several videos in the search for evidence of an abduction.

STAFF REPORT