Police: Sugar Grove robbery never happened

Turns out the woman who said she was robbed by a police impersonator in Sugar Grove this week made the whole thing up, the real police said Thursday.

Danielle Heckenback, 32, of Yorkville was charged with filing a false police report, a felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

Sugar Grove Detective John Sizer said Heckenback set off a major manhunt Monday afternoon when she told police she had been pulled over by an unmarked car with flashing lights and robbed by a man she initially believed was a police officer.

The report prompted police to conduct roadblocks, hand out fliers and warn the public of a potentially armed robber on the loose.

As the investigation went on, Sizer said, "some inconsistencies" emerged from Heckenback's story regarding her whereabouts at the time of the crime.

"She wasn't where she said she was when the incident occurred - not even close," Sizer said. "We confronted her during a follow-up interview (Wednesday), and she admitted she made the whole thing up for a lot of personal reasons I don't want to go into. She made a bad decision."

While Sizer said he "felt sorry" for the woman's situation, he also noted that lying to police is a serious crime.

"We had two officers working on this around the clock for two days. We took it very seriously and expended a lot of time and effort before finding out it wasn't a legitimate complaint," he said. "We don't want the public to think you can do things like this and not have some consequences."

Heckenback surrendered Thursday and was booked and released on a $2,000 bond.

On a positive note, Sizer said local investigators were pleased with how quickly word of the supposed robbery got out to the public and other law enforcement agencies.

"Everybody heard about it," he said. "If anything good came out of it, it was that the networking was amazing."

Hoax: Woman released on bond