2 charged with filing false police reports in Aurora

Two Aurora residents - a 38-year-old woman and a 16-year-old boy - each have been charged with filing false police reports in separate cases last month, authorities said Friday.

In the first case, police said Crystal M. Moran of the 300 block of Old Indian Trail Road filed a report on May 1 saying she was robbed at gunpoint by a man who took $600 in cash and her phone at an apartment complex on the 2000 block of West Illinois Avenue.

Detectives said her story didn't ring true, and after further investigation they learned Moran actually went to the apartment complex with a male friend and gave him her phone. The man then went to a fifth-floor apartment to sell drugs and instead was robbed of items that included her phone.

Moran told police she made up the story in hopes they could recover her phone, officials said.

Police said they are continuing to investigate the actual robbery and expect Moran to turn herself in.

The 16-year-old boy, meanwhile, was charged after claiming he and a 15-year-old friend were robbed at gunpoint by several teens as they walked through a parking lot May 30 on the first block of North Smith Street.

The boy even gave police the names of the suspects.

Police said the "robbery" actually involved the other teens stealing marijuana from the 15-year-old friend; the 16-year-old was simply was a bystander.

The 16-year-old made up the story to retaliate against the other teens, police said, and had also claimed his cellphone was stolen in hopes of replacing it with a better one.

He was taken to the Kane County Juvenile Justice Center in St. Charles.

"These charges should serve as warnings to other people who may think they can get away with filing false police reports that we will hold them accountable," police Chief Kristen Ziman said in a news release. "We expended an inordinate amount of resources on these cases that could have been better spent achieving justice for victims of actual crimes."