Heidi Jones, the weatherperson on New York's WABC (and occasionally on Good Morning America), told police that a man had attacked her and tried to rape her as she was jogging in Central Park in September. Police say she lied.

According to the New York Post, Jones (an avid runner—she has a whole website about it) was arrested this week and charged with a misdemeanor for filing a false report. A serious false report. She told police that on September 24, a Hispanic man grabbed her while she was jogging in the park, pulled her into the bushes, and tried to rape her. After an investigation turned up nothing, her story started to fall apart:

The first clue was that she waited until Nov. 24, two months later, to report the alleged attack, the sources said. At the time, the sources said, she told police that three days earlier, on Nov. 21, the same man somehow found her again and harassed her, saying, "I know you went to the police."

The Post says that Jones eventually admitted that she made up the story "in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life." An odd and perhaps very sad case.

[NYP. Photos via]