CLARK — The Clark teenager who tweeted Sunday night that someone broke into her home and begged followers to call 911 does not appear to have been in any real danger, police now say.
It was a hoax, but with the help of social media — particularly Twitter — it was a hoax that ensnared hundreds of thousands of people.
Clark police received 6,000 calls in about 12 hours about Kara Alongi. That's more than the total number of households in the small Union County municipality. Most were false leads that wasted time and resources.
“It has hampered us because we have to follow up," said Alan Scherb, Clark police chief. "Unfortunately a lot of leads and a lot rumors that went out there were not true.”
But the hype knew no bounds. Within hours, the Kara Alongi story was trending on Twitter, being retweeted by tens of thousands, hour after hour.
"It could be a very useful tool if its done the right way," Scherb said of Twitter. "If it's done for bogus, for attention, it sends everybody in a panic. In today's day, we don’t need that panic."
Police arrived to the home on Hall Drive at about 7:30 p.m., a little more than an hour after Alongi's first harrowing tweet, where she claimed someone had broken into her home.
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Her parents told police that she had run away before.
Alongi is still missing.
“We are investigating this as a simple runaway juvenile,” he said. “At this point in time we don’t know why she ran away and we still don’t know why she tweeted what she tweeted”
The backlash on Twitter has already begun.
Hundreds of posts now decry her actions, calling the young woman vicious names and wondering why she would play with their emotions or take advantage of their concerns.
At Arthur L. Johnson High School in Clark, students had mixed reactions. Some were concerned for Kara's well being. Others were not taking it seriously. Several students said that neither teachers nor the principal addressed the issue during the day, and many left school unsure if Alongi was really kidnapped or if it was a hoax.
"Some of them were making a big joke about it, I take it seriously," said Samantha Risko, a junior and classmate of Kara's. "I hope she is ok, wherever she is, and I hope her family is ok too."
Police: Kara Alongi's Twitter hoax sparked a social media flurry that 'hampered' investigation | NJ.com
