A woman was arrested after she falsely reported a kidnapping, leaving her son unattended along a major street and allowing him to run off into the night after a fit of rage, police said.

The incident began on November 5 when authorities from the St. Landry in Louisiana responded to a report of a child being abducted at approximately 1 a.m. near US 190 and Industrial Road in Eunice, Louisiana, according to a statement from the St. Louis Parish Sheriff’s Office. Landry.

“The mother, Artasia Quantaya Viges, reported that individuals in an older model truck abducted her son while she was parked in the roadway tending to a flat tire,” authorities said.

However, almost immediately after officers arrived on the scene, deputies learned the boy had been found by local citizens who discovered him unattended in the Heinen Medical Clinic parking lot with abrasion injuries to his knees, police said.

“The child told police that his mother had ‘run him off’ and left him on the side of the road,” authorities said. The child was transported to a nearby hospital for medical attention. With this wide disparity in statements, juvenile detectives were called in to investigate.”

“A subsequent interview with Artasia Viges revealed the horrific truth; there was no abduction and a small child was left unattended along a major street and allowed to run off into the night,” police said. What started as a disagreement between a mother and child became a bizarre reaction to the child having a tantrum.”

Police said that when Viges stopped the car, the child — “obviously not properly restrained” — got out of the car before it stopped, resulting in injuries to the child’s knees.

“The mother chose to leave the child out of the car, allowing her to run in the dark along major roads,” police continued. “The mother admitted to detectives that she did not try to follow him and eventually lost sight of him.

Viges was later arrested and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.