After asking for the public's help to find a man who was apparently stalking an 8-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother around their Crown Heights home, police announced that the children recanted the story, admitting they faked a threatening note that read, "Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute."
The children's father is an NYPD Special Victims Unit detective, and the Post reports, "Sources said the parents were away on vacation and the youngsters were unhappy with their strict babysitter."
The siblings told police that the sister was followed by a menacing man on Friday morning when walking to her bus stop, and then, later that afternoon, the brother claimed that the man stopped his school bus and attempted to pick him up, only for the bus aide to stop him. By 7 p.m., the girl said the man had been on her front stoop, taking pictures of the house and asking her where she sleeps and who lives with her, before fleeing.
The children also said that on Saturday morning, the man approached the brother and asked about his parents and what bedroom he sleeps in, before leaving in a white four-door car. That evening, the children said that the ominous note, "Watch out. I am watching you!! Your daughter is cute," was in the mailbox.
Police released security footage of the suspect, who then turned himself in. According to the Post's sources, "he claimed that he once lived at the address and just wanted to drive by his old home. The kids eventually admitted to making up the story and writing the letter themselves and placing them in their mailbox."
A police source told DNAinfo the children will not be charged with any crime because of their young age.
