Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2020

(AP) -- Authorities say a Florida man embellished details of his 3-year-old daughter's kidnapping because he didn't believe police would take her abduction by her mother seriously.

Apopka police say investigators re-interviewed Lester Mejia on Monday after his daughter was recovered within several hours of being taken near Orlando.

Mejia told detectives a relative had contacted him at work Monday to inform that his daughter's mother had taken the girl.

He explained that he called 911 while returning to his Apopka home, but a dispatcher told him there was no crime if the mother had the child.

Fearing that he wouldn't see his daughter again, he made up a story of unknown abductors.