An influencer in the United States faces a 90-day prison sentence for lying to the public about an alleged attempt to kidnap her children. Katie Sorensen, of Petaluma, California, was in tears when she shared the incident with her Instagram followers in a video in December 2020. In a craft store, she was followed by a Latino couple. She would have overheard the two of them talking about their children’s looks. The strangers scared her.
In the parking lot, the 31-year-old said, she first buckled one of her two children into the back seat of her car, while the second remained in the stroller, which was next to Katie and inevitably remained unobserved for a moment. When the mother raised her head, the unknown couple suddenly stood very close to her.
She then quickly took the other child out of the stroller and placed it in the child car seat. With the video, she wanted to draw other parents’ attention to being more vigilant: “I think we’re all so distracted by what’s happening in the world right now that we make sure that masks are worn and that our children are themselves don’t get infected anywhere,” says Katie. “We may be forgetting the most important way to keep her safe, and that is to always have her close to us and not let it take her away.”
The video went viral on the internet. The police viewed surveillance footage. This also featured a Latino couple. But what Katie Sorensen told officers differed from what she said in the video. Six months later, charges were suddenly brought against the mother for false reporting. The police had concluded that she had made up her story. The couple was able to refute the allegations against them in conversation with the officials. The two told ABC News that they were in the store to buy Christmas decorations. They also believed that Sorensen’s false claims were racially motivated – also to generate more followers.
In April of this year, the mother was taken into custody on $100,000 bail. On Friday she was sentenced to 90 days in prison. She also has to stay away from social media for a year and attend implied bias training.
Watch the video: Influencer and model Louise Boyce parodies the emotional behavior of a toddler on her Instagram account @mamastillgotit. As “Bernie”, the mother of three children imitates the anticipation of Christmas or the picky eating behavior of a three-year-old in an inimitable way.
Sources: Sonomy County Attorney’s Office, ABC News
