April 17--A South Chicago woman is facing criminal charges after police say she filed a false report about being kidnapped over the weekend and held for three days in an abandoned building near a CTA station in Lawndale.
Veronica Fuentes, 39, of the 8200 block of South Commercial Avenue, was charged with one felony count of disorderly conduct for filing a false report after recanting her story, police said early Friday.
Fuentes had told police she walked out of the CTA station in the 2100 block of South Pulaski Road and was waiting at a bus stop around 8:45 a.m. Saturday when a man walked up and struck her in the head, according to a police alert issued late Wednesday.
Fuentes had said the man dragged her into an abandoned building, where he and three other men kept her for three days, police said. On Tuesday, she realized she was alone after hearing the four men argue earlier that day over who should stay and watch her, police said.
Around 7 p.m., she ran out of the building, got on a bus and went to Mount Sinai Hospital, where officers were called, police said.
Chicago police issued an alert Thursday giving a description of one of the alleged attackers. Later in the day, city crews were seen at the building boarding it up.
But by the evening, Area Central detectives determined that the woman's story was not bona fide, police spokesman Officer Thomas Sweeney said.
Fuentes is scheduled to appear in bond court Friday afternoon.
