Boy's Flea Market Disappearance a 'Hoax'

May 20, 2008 — -- The Amber Alert for a 3-year-old North Carolina boy who was reported missing from a flea market by his mother Sunday was the result of a "hoax," the Smithfield Police Department police chief announced this morning.

"I'm glad it's happened the way it is and we have a child who is safe," Police Chief Steve Gillikin said during the news conference. "But as I said earlier, this has definitely changed the last two days."

Gillikin called the disappearance of Siraj Munir Davenport a hoax, but said he could not discuss the details of the actual plan. The Amber Alert, which had been in effect since Sunday afternoon, was called off early this morning.

The chief did say, however, that the false report of the missing boy was "very frustrating, if you can look at all the resources that could be spent elsewhere."

Gillikin said in an interview with ABC News Monday that authorities did not know whether the boy had simply wandered away from his mother or whether he might have been abducted.

An intense search began around noon Sunday when a manager of the Brightleaf Flea Market called authorities to report that a customer's child had vanished from the store two hours earlier.

Rosnah Thomason, the boy's mother, told police that she looked for him on her own before returning home to get someone to translate for her. Thomason does not speak English, according to authorities.

When asked whether this was a case of misunderstanding , Gillikin said, "I wouldn't call it a misunderstanding... maybe a hoax."

Though Thomason was at the flea market Sunday, Gillikin said during the news conference that Siraj did not accompany her. "We know that for a fact," he said.

The Johnston County Sheriff's Office joined the search Sunday, offering a boat to motor down the nearby Neuse River and look for any sign of the boy. The river borders the flea market area at the base of a steep embankment and recent rainfall had produced a swift current that had authorities concerned.

On Monday, the search was expanded to the air and the FBI offered its assistance. Two day-care centers that the child, nicknamed "Raji," attended organized a candlelight vigil Monday night to pray for his safe return.