When coming up with a lie to hide the fact that you dropped out of college, the simpler the better. A Pennsylvania woman went against the grain and allegedly faked her own abduction to hide the fact that she dropped out of college and wasn’t able to graduate.
Chloe Stein was last heard from on May 1, 2023, at 10:30 p.m. when she texted her boyfriend while driving home from work. She let him know that she was being pulled over by a police officer. From there, her boyfriend tried to contact her again but had no luck doing so.
The Pennsylvania State Police were later informed by the family that they had found her car abandoned on Radebaugh Road in the area of North Greengate Road. A missing person declaration was made and a search for the 23-year-old was launched.
State Police Trooper Steve Limani said that the department spent “tens of thousands” of dollars in the search which included flying a helicopter in the area only to later uncover the truth. Stein was actually at a home in Jeannette when officers arrived. She was then taken in for questioning.
At the state police station, Stein reported that she was pulled over and abducted “by an unknown male who posed as a police officer,” the criminal complaint said. She said her abductor had a firearm, she was blindfolded and taken to various locations in the area.
Her story was already unwinding when investigators received a call from Penn State University officials which said Stein was not a currently enrolled student, despite numerous news reports that described her as a senior in college.
“During the course of that phone call we found out that she had not been attending college for quite some time — almost at the point where it’s over a year, maybe two — and graduation was right around the corner,” Limani said.
“That really led us in the direction that at any point of time there was no police interaction, there was no pull over,” he said. “None of that happened.”
Stein was arrested by Pennsylvania State Police and charged with four misdemeanors: false alarm to a public safety agency, falsely reporting an offense that did not occur, obstructing administration of law, and disorderly conduct.