On Thursday, McGonnigal, 27, of Weymouth, was arrested and charged with unlawful wiretapping, a felony offense; false reporting of a crime; and impeding a police investigation, police said.

But just as quickly, the skeptics emerged — including officials from the Wareham Police Department and Water Wizz park, where the incident had reportedly taken place.

When Matthew McGonnigal’s girlfriend posted on Facebook that he was a “hero” for stopping an alleged child abduction in the parking lot of a popular family water park in Wareham last Saturday, the online praise came flooding in as hundreds of people shared the news online.

According to police, McGonnigal misled investigators when he told them that he was involved in thwarting an attempted child abduction at Water Wizz park last weekend, an incident he claimed resulted in the arrest of two suspects by Wareham officers.


“[The] investigation revealed the incident never occurred and was completely fabricated,” police said in a statement Friday, announcing McGonnigal’s arrest.

Police said McGonnigal secretly recorded his conversation with police — a violation of the state’s wiretapping laws — when confronted at headquarters about his claims.

“At this point, WPD investigators remain unclear as to the motives behind Mr. McGonnigal’s actions regarding the incident he alleges occurred over the weekend at the water park parking lot,” police said.

The bizarre story about the alleged abduction attempt first appeared on Facebook Saturday, July 22.

McGonnigal’s girlfriend shared a story online about McGonnigal confronting a man in the Water Wizz parking who was with a “little girl screaming for help.”

The woman wrote that McGonnigal asked the girl if she was all right, and when she said no, the man told McGonnigal to “mind his [expletive] business.”

After confronting the man a second time, she claimed, McGonnigal and the individual got into a physical altercation. Soon, she said, police got involved, and arrested the alleged suspect and a woman described as that man’s girlfriend.


“Thank god matt was there at the right time,” the post said. “He saved this little girls life! Hes a hero!”

After the post was shared more than 700 times, officials from the park took to Facebook Sunday to issue a statement about the “very vicious and destructive” claims.

The park said it had reached out to police, and confirmed that no such incident had occurred in the company’s parking lot, and there was no report on file.

“As most of you know there are many things on Facebook that people post that are not true,” the company wrote. “For anybody that disagrees with us please call up the Wareham police department to confirm that we have giving you the correct information.”

Officials from Water Wizz said there was a police officer on duty the day of the alleged incident who would have been “the first person to respond as he was directly in the park that day,” near the park’s front gate.

The company thanked the many people who came to its defense as the Facebook post went viral.

“We value our families we value our children and we will be the first people to respond to any type of incident of this nature,” the company said.

On Monday, Wareham Police Chief Kevin Walsh told the Globe in an e-mail that “no such incident was reported” over the weekend.


“And no such arrests were made by any of our officers,” he added.

The original post was later deleted from Facebook. When contacted by the Globe about why it was taken down, McGonnigal said people were sharing personal information about his family.

“This is not right my family is being attacked,” he said.

Police said McGonnigal posted bail Thursday night, and he was to be arraigned on the criminal charges in Wareham District Court Friday.

Steve Annear can be reached at steve.annear@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @steveannear.