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The incident began Friday night when a 911 caller reported his son, 18-year-old Brian Fry, was being chased in the woods by a man with a gun. Northwest Regional police officers responded to the man's property in the 1700 block of Milton Grove Road about 10 p.m.
Within minutes, a team of six officers from three police departments — including the Warwick department's K-9 unit — continued searching until 3:30 Saturday morning.
The search resumed about 8:30 a.m. until officers got word the report was phony. Search efforts ended about 12:30 p.m. after nearly 10 hours of investigating.
The hoax was apparently concocted by the younger Fry for a strange reason, Northwest Regional police Chief Sam Gatchell said. The teen had recently learned the location of his biological mother, but he didn't think his father would let him visit her.
"It was a ploy to go see her — a strange way to go see her," Gatchell said.
Police consulted with the Lancaster County District Attorney's office and concluded that charges weren't warranted.
"We don't know of anything he can be charged with," Gatchell said. "He didn't call police directly."
Gatchell said the 911 call was taken seriously due to the nature of the report. Personally assisting in the search, the chief was irked to find out it was a sham.
"It certainly was a drain on manpower," he said, noting that Elizabethtown police officers had to cover Northwest Regional's jurisdiction during the searches.
The plot of woods was dense and contained a ravine, Gatchell said, making for a strenuous search. Officers also knocked on doors.
The K-9 got stuck in a ditch at one point and had to be rescued. Also, officers "came back all muddy and scratched up," the chief said.
E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com
