Crime & Safety
False Child Abduction Alert Issued
Reports of a child abduction in Newtown are false and may have been due to a "mechanical failure," officials said.
At about 6 p.m., a news alert flashed across television screens across the region saying there had been a child abduction in Newtown.
At about that same time, news media started calling Newtown police inquiring about the abduction, which surprised dispatchers because they said there had been no such reports.
It turned out the news alert had been falsely issued and was due to a "mechanical failure," local officials said state officials told them.
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A spokeswoman for Charter Communications could not be reached for comment.
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