Woman arrested for calling police to ‘set up a date with man she met online’

A woman was arrested for falsely reporting a crime after she called police and made up a story to avoid a first date.

Sumaya Thomas, 18, had arranged a romantic evening with a stranger she met on a dating app, but when he showed up at her door on June 16, she suddenly “got cold feet” and called the police.

According to an affidavit filed in connection with the bizarre case, the North Liberty, Iowa, woman told officers the man was an “aggressive” ex-partner who had “threatened” her with physical harm.

Thomas, who falsely claimed to be pregnant with the man’s child, said he planned to “punch, kick and stab her”.

When officers arrived at the scene, the man informed them that he had met Thomas just a week earlier via a dating app, which provided officers with evidence of messages between the pair.

“The conversation showed he was sincere and had truly just gotten to know this woman,” the statement read.

However, Thomas told officers they had known each other for two years and accused the man of “abuse” and “threatening to harm her”, while claiming their written communications were via Snapchat.

Officers later discovered that Thomas had lied and deleted messages she had exchanged with her partner from her phone, and she eventually “admitted to making false statements because she wasn’t sure she would meet him.”

The report stated that “she did not think the officers would help her, so she made up the conversation and the events she described.”

As a result, the man – whose name was not released – was detained for more than an hour.

According to the Daily Mail, Thomas was arrested and charged with two counts of falsely reporting an indictable offense to a public entity, a misdemeanor, and one count of falsely reporting a 911 call.