LEHIGH ACRES, Fla. — A Lehigh Acres mother is now facing charges after she allegedly filed a false police report claiming Christmas gifts were ‘stolen’ from her home.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office arrested Shana Hudson, 39, and charged her with one count of making a false report.
Hudson originally claimed that someone broke into her Lehigh Acres home in November and stole all of the Christmas gifts she just bought her children.
However, it turns out that Hudson allegedly had them the entire time. An anonymous tipster called SWFL Crime Stoppers, telling them that Hudson was storing the gifts at a family member’s house. When deputies went to check on Monday evening, they found nearly all of the gifts that were reported as stolen.
ABC7 interviewed Hudson on November 20 when she said that someone broke into her home through a back window. While inside, they stole all of her kid’s gifts she bought them for Christmas.
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“Eight fishing pools, they took some clothes, ’cause I bought clothes for my five kids,” Hudson told ABC7 in November. “I wanted my kids to have a pretty much decent Christmas. But now they ain’t going to have Christmas at all some thief came and stole our s***.”
That evening, she pleaded with whoever stole the presents to bring them back.
“Turn yourself in and bring us back our stuff so me and my kids can have a good Christmas,” she said
On Monday, while following up on the anonymous tip, deputies found nearly all of the gifts at a relative’s home.
TVs tucked under bed sheets, fishing poles stashed in piles of clothes and nestled behind the dryer, a basket full of Bath and Body Works.
Lee County deputies compared what they found to the list of “stolen” items and marked off nearly every single one.
ABC7 was there as deputies led Hudson to jail. She wouldn’t answer any questions.
She’s now being charged with making a false police report.