By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

ORONOGO, Mo. — An 8-year-old boy made up a tale of being abducted last week by a stranger outside his home in Oronogo because he did not want to go to school, according to police.

The boy told police that an unidentified man about 30 to 40 years old, driving an older model silver or gray Chevrolet or Dodge pickup truck, grabbed him while he was waiting for a school bus in front of his home about 7:15 a.m. on Oct. 28 and forced him into the truck.

The boy claimed that he escaped his abductor a short time later by jumping out of the vehicle at the intersection of Highway 43 and Ivy Road west of town.

Oronogo’s police chief called a news conference Wednesday to announce that the boy’s story finally collapsed Tuesday when he got in trouble for another matter at school. The boy, police said, admitted to school officials that he made up the whole story because he did not want to go to school.

“Up until yesterday, everybody believed the kid was telling the truth,” police Chief Jeff Fries said.

He said the child provided convincing details and never wavered from his story in three separate interviews last week.

Fries said it turns out that the boy ducked behind his house as the school bus came by, climbed into his mother’s minivan and hid there before going back inside his home more than an hour later and telling his parents that he had been abducted.

Asked if the recent story of the so-called “balloon boy” in Colorado may have inspired the Oronogo boy’s fabrication, Fries said there was no evidence of that. He also said there was no indication that the boy planned the matter in advance.

“But, he was very good storyteller,” Fries said.

The police chief said the matter has not yet been referred to the Jasper County Juvenile Office. He said police are still attempting to determine if any charge will be brought against the boy. His name is being withheld by police because of his juvenile status.

Fries said that when officers talked to the boy after his admission that he had lied, he was “very upset” and “expressed regret and sorrow for what he did.”

“He knew what he did was wrong,” he said.