(Updated) A fake Amber Alert claiming that two young girls were kidnapped by a suspect driving a brown Jeep Liberty spread across at least ten states via text message this week, prompting announcements by local authorities that the alert is a hoax and should be ignored. As of this writing, it has surfaced in Texas, New York, Vermont, Arizona, Ohio, Indiana, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Arkansas. Apart from identifying a local community in each state as the scene of the crime (and occasionally specifying the model of the vehicle as a Jeep Cherokee instead of a Liberty), the text has been virtually identical in every case. The following example circulated in Oregon:

AMBER ALERT! Albany area - 2 little girls kidnapped around noon. Suspect is driving brown jeep liberty. Plate number 43 6519 please send to everyone

Police caught on to the hoax when they compared the license plate number to their databases and came up with no hits. Oddly enough, it did match the Montana plates listed in a real Amber Alert issued the week before. Two young girls were reported missing in the company of their mother, 49-year-old Leslee R. Hebein-Etapa of Townsend, Montana, who was last seen was driving 2002 a brown Jeep Liberty. The alert was canceled on April 12 when Hebein-Etapa was arrested in Wisconsin. The two were found safe and sound back in Montana.

Authorities are still at a loss to explain how and why the alert resurfaced as a hoax two days later and rippled across the country via text message.

Read more about it:
• Amber Alert Issued for Townsend Woman and Her Two Daughters - Missoulian, April 12
• Sisters Found, Mother Arrested in Amber Alert Case - Missoulian, April 14
• Amber Alert Cancelled - AP, April 14
• Fake Amber Alert Causes Confusion - NewsWest 9, April 15
• False Amber Alert Triggered by Real One in Montana? - WCAX-TV News, April 16
• Puzzling Amber Alert Sets Police on Trail of Sender - Portland Tribune, April 16
• Text Relates to Montana Alert - Albany Democrat-Herald, April 16