Well, that was fast.
Police announced on Thursday evening that reports of a 69-year-old suburban woman being robbed of thousands of dollars of jewelry and cash in broad daylight on North Michigan Avenue never actually happened.
"Detectives confronted the victim with inconsistencies between her account of the incident and recovered video and learned that the story was not true," a Chicago police spokesman told DNAinfo Chicago of their investigation.
The Homewood-Flossmoor woman had claimed that at least three young men -- and possibly as many as 10 -- surrounded her around 12:20 p.m. Wednesday outside of the Saks Fifth Avenue store in the 700 block of North Michigan Avenue. The men, she claimed, demanded she hand over her valuables, which she said included "several thousands of dollars" of jewelry plus cash.
The woman had claimed that she did not call out for assistance because she was afraid the men would hurt her, WGN reports, and went into detail about the purported attack in an interview with ABC Chicago.
The robbery claim again left Mayor Rahm Emanuel to defend the safety of the city's Magnificent Mile shopping district in an unrelated press conference earlier Thursday.
"There are a lot of police, presence on Michigan Avenue and yes, people feel safe because I talk to people constantly who note how safe they are," the mayor said, according to NBC Chicago.
Police detectives have yet to determine whether charges against the woman for filing the false report are "prudent and would serve a police purpose," ABC reports.
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