One woman apparently discovered that making up a crime and subsequently complaining about law enforcement might put a person on the wrong side of the law.
“We’ve got enough problems to deal with without people complaining the police didn’t show up when we were not even called, and then giving us fake crimes to investigate. We’ve got more than enough to investigate as it is,” Eatonton Police Chief Howell Cardwell said.
Cardwell said he had a few people call and say they saw on social media that police were called to a crime but didn’t show up, and they questioned why there was no response.
An investigation revealed that Melissa Marquez-Parra reportedly told coworkers that she was shopping at the Eatonton Walmart Sept. 27, and a man followed her around talking on his cell phone and he described her appearance to whomever he was speaking with. She said a few moments later, a different man approached her and offered her $2,000 to go off with him.
Marquez-Parra reportedly said she became alarmed and went to a store employee and described what happened, and the store employee called police. After waiting awhile, the employee walked with her out to her vehicle in the parking lot. Once they got to her vehicle, they discovered that something plastic was covering the backup camera on her vehicle, and Marquez Parra removed it before she drove away. She then went to work and reportedly told people at work what happened, and it got on social media that a Walmart employee called the police, but the police never showed up, according to Cardwell.
After learning of the situation, Cardwell went to Walmart and viewed security camera footage of Sept. 27; he watched footage from inside the store and outside in the parking lot. Cardwell said he saw Marquez-Parra walk into the store and shop in the section of the store that carries baby items, but no man ever spoke with her while she was there. He said the video shows her purchase her items at the selfcheckout cash register and then exit the store. She never speaks to an employee and she walks out by herself, gets in her vehicle without looking at or removing anything from it, and drives away.
Cardwell said he also viewed the parking lot security camera footage during the timeframe Marquez-Parra was inside the store, and although people walked past it, no one ever approached her vehicle or stopped to put anything on it.
Cardwell said he also checked with dispatchers and with the Walmart store manager, and no call was ever made to the police regarding the matter.
So, EPD officer Rebecca Meeks brought Marquez-Parra to the police station, and Marquez-Parra made official statements telling the same story mentioned above in detail. Even after Meeks and Cardwell told her they watched security videos, Marquez-Parra reportedly held fast to her story.
“The things she said were not on the cameras; the whole story was a lie,” Cardwell said. “We brought her here and gave her the chance, but she would not tell the truth.”
Melissa Marquez-Parra, 21, of Union Chapel Rd., Eatonton, was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Sept. 29, on one misdemeanor count of making false statements of a crime to any law enforcement officer. She was taken to Putnam County jail and released Oct. 1 on a $5,000 cash bond.