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Two weeks after a pair of 11-year-olds alerted Langley, B.C. RCMP to a suspected child abductor trolling the city in an SUV, police called off the search for the man last Friday after revealing that the report was nothing more than a “childish prank.”

The episode began on January 15th, when two boys reported seeing a middle-aged man pull alongside them in a “distinctive” Toyota SUV and say “you better get in.”

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By January 30, local media abounded with a composite sketch of the suspect prepared with the boys’ help: A man 45 to 50 years old with grey hair, square glasses and dressed in a leather jacket.

“This resulted in the male suspect himself, coming forward to advise police he thought it might be his likeness in the sketch,” said a Monday release by the Langley RCMP.

“Not only was the male pictured not the suspect, he was in fact the victim of a childish prank.”

According to officers, the two boys had made a habit of ringing the man’s doorbell and then running away before he had a chance to answer. It was after one such prank that the man pursued the boys and demanded to know their name — prompting the boys to concoct the child luring story in retaliation.

“False claims such as this one can have long lasting and dangerous after effects,” read the RCMP’s Monday statement.

The detachment’s operations officer, Inspector Amrik Virk, added that the false complaint “grossly violated” the sanctity of the criminal justice system.