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A group of Oak Glen High School baseball players got stopped Sunday by police who thought they had been kidnapped, a police official said.
The incident, which turned out to be a prank, happened Sunday afternoon near Greensboro, N.C., while the team was en route to a national baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., said Lt. Patrick O’Toole of the High Point (N.C.) Police Department.
OGHS varsity baseball coach Mathew Deveaney and four players were driving in a pickup truck at a high rate of speed on Interstate 74 when someone called police from a cell phone to report a possible kidnapping or hostage-taking, O’Toole said.
The passing motorist saw someone in the truck with his hands and mouth taped and waving frantically, he said. The fact that the truck was traveling 85 mph in a 65 mph zone “added some credence to the urgency of the matter,” O’Toole said.
High Point police responded with eight to 10 cruisers and pulled the vehicle over with guns drawn, according to police and local media reports. I-74 had to be shut down for at least 10 minutes while police sorted out the incident, O’Toole said.
“We have to treat it as if it’s legitimate. We hope for the best but prepare for the worst,” he said. “We were just responding to the information we were getting. We have to stop the vehicle and make an assessment.”
Once officers had the vehicle pulled over, they removed the passengers one by one, handcuffed them and questioned them, he said.
Police soon realized that the reported kidnapping was a hoax.
“As we were sorting through it, it became apparent that this was some sort of game. They thought it was funny,” O’Toole said. “One of them said they thought it would be funny to scare some people.”
O’Toole identified the driver as Deveaney, 26, of Oakdale, Pa. Also a math teacher at Oak Glen, Deveaney was cited for speeding (85 mph in a 65 mph zone).
No other charges are being considered at this time, although the law enforcement resources expended were considerable, O’Toole said. “It was a substantial amount of time we were on the scene,” he said.
Deveaney and the players were on their way to the Mingo Bay Baseball Classic in Myrtle Beach, S.C., where they are scheduled to play through Wednesday.
Oak Glen was scheduled to play East Fairmont, W.Va., on Monday, and is scheduled to play Central Pageland, S.C., today and Keenan, S.C., on Wednesday.
The semifinals are on Thursday, and the championship games are on Friday.
OGHS Athletic Director Phil Rujak declined comment on the incident, except to say, “Anything that occurred will be handled as an internal matter.”