SANTA ANA, California - Deputies began a search and even questioned a man after a four-year-old girl reported an attempted abduction before she admitted she had made the whole thing up, a sheriff's spokesman said yesterday.

SANTA ANA, California - Deputies began a search and even questioned a man after a four-year-old girl reported an attempted abduction before she admitted she had made the whole thing up, a sheriff's spokesman said yesterday.

The girl said a man with spiked hair and a dragon tattoo approached her on a playground on Tuesday and showed her a gun tucked in his waistband, Jim Amormino said. Authorities dispatched eight police cars, a helicopter and a dozen armed officers to find the suspect and even interviewed a man with spiked hair during a four-hour hunt.

But the child's story changed repeatedly during the day and she finally admitted to inventing the attempted kidnapping to get back at her mother.

The mother had briefly left her daughter unsupervised in a gated playground in the mobile home park where the family live and the child was scared, he said. - Sapa-AP