False Call Leads to Arrest

Police, ambulance, and fire crews rushed to the scene of a single-vehicle crash after a caller reported that a car ran off the roadway and into flood waters near the Vancleve Post Office of Friday.

Crews from six agencies responded to the scene and searched for the crash near 6836 Highway 15 North at 5:28 p.m. on April 5, but found nothing.  The Jackson Fire Department dispatched a rescue boat to the scene to help with the rescue for a crash that officials later determined never happened.

The Kentucky State Police opened an investigation and contacted the caller who reported the incident.  After some discussion, Natasha N. Robertson, 33, of Vancleve, admitted to officials that she “did not witness a collision.”  She told fire crews that she might have seen “a red beaver” in the water and “might have thought it was a car.”

Fire officials said that they had received at least one other unusual and false call from the same individual in the past few months.

Members of the Jackson Fire Department’s Rescue Squad searched the river bank for any evidence of an accident but determined that the call had no merit. 

Fire crews left the scene at 6:04 p.m.

At 6:19 p.m., Trooper _____ Turner arrested Robertson and charged her with one misdemeanor count of making a false report of an incident to law enforcement.  

She was transported to the Jackson Police Department and lodged in the Kentucky River Regional Jail by the Breathtit County Jailer’s Office.

According to the Kentucky Revised Statutes, Robertson could, if found guilty, be forced to reimburse all the agencies for the expense of responding to the false event.