A Woman Faked Her Own Abduction So Her Family Wouldn't Find Out She Dropped Out Of Penn State TWO YEARS AGO
On the evening of Monday, May 1st about an hour southeast of Pittsburgh, a woman named Chloe Stein got off work, texted her boyfriend that she'd been pulled over by police.. and then she went silent and no one was able to reach her.
The following day her car was found abandoned and the cops had no record of anyone stopping her, so a massive search began complete with volunteers, police, a K-9 team & a helicopter. Posts took off across social media sharing her image in hopes someone would have a tip.
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Thankfully by Tuesday night authorities located Stein in the woods not far from her house, safe and unharmed. She told police she'd been taken by a masked man with a gun the night before, but that he'd brought her back to the area & let her go. PHEW!
The reality, though? She had voluntarily parked her car on the side of the road the night before, walked a few miles away, & hid out.
The reason?.....
From USA Today:
Pennsylvania state police told WTAE they believe Stein may have plotted her fake disappearance because she had dropped out of college.
Stein had previously been a student at Penn State University, WTAE reported, but police said she hasn't been enrolled for about a year and a half.
Stein's college situation was "probably the number one driving force for the whole scenario," state police trooper Steve Limani told WTAE. "The fact that she hadn't been in college for almost two years — her circle had believed she was graduating in a matter of two or three days."
Sure, the search probably cost an enormous buttload of taxpayer money, and her relatives and friends were probably losing their minds with stress and worry, but…. I kind of get it??? Your family thinks you've been crushing it at Penn State the last couple years when you're not even enrolled anymore, and they're getting jazzed to attend a graduation ceremony that will have zero record of you? People's minds can snap a little when a gig is up.
When I was a senior at IUP during the Fall semester, I had a 1.8GPA and was failing nearly all of my classes. The only hope I had of passing some of them was acing my final exams, so I'd go to the library to cram.. but then I'd look out the windows, see everyone on their way to porch parties and think, "Fuck it, I'm screwed anyway." Off to the rugby keg I went.
In the end I didn't even show up for my finals (I believe I hid out at Al Pattis during those times, the best!), so in a last ditch, sleazy, panic-effort I emailed my professors claiming some type of emergency & asked for a second chance, and one said yes. Even then I ghosted them. So that was it. I was donezo. No more chances.
The biggest problem, though, was that my parents thought I'd been doing alright (because I'd been lying to them extensively on many fronts). Now, in a week's time, they'd be picking me up for the holiday break, and my grades would be arriving in the mail and all of my lies would come out. (Including that I wasn't supposed to leave the area due to community service from an arrest, ope!)
Not kidding when I say the thought of 'disappearing somehow' crossed my mind, even in some of the most morbid ways possible. I'd let the lies pile up as I became way too consumed with partying, and could not figure any way I'd be able to face them with the truth. As a dumb college kid in a booze-bubble who was pretty out of touch with reality, I thought this was the end of the road for me.
Thankfully in a moment of clarity I called my Godmother and spilled everything, and she talked enough sense into me that I knew I had to face the music instead of alternatives that would only delay the inevitable and/or make things works. Still, I felt like I'd fucked up so bad that I convinced myself joining the U.S. military in the midst of a quagmire was my only shot at redemption. (Not as crazy a life choice as faking a gunpoint kidnapping, but signing 5 years of your life over to the DoD is still a bit extreme.. so just saying - I totally understand being young and getting yourself in an enormously dumb pickle, and doing something nuts as a result.) Again, don't recommend the abduction path, actually bad… but I at least understand.
Hopefully she learns from this and hey, the Marines are recruiting heavily right now and it sounds like she's got some solid outdoors expertise? Plus the automatic paycheck could help cover the charges which allege 'false alarm to the agency of public safety, false reports, disorderly conduct, and obstruction of the administration of law and other government functions'. Ooof.