ASHEVILLE, N.C. --
An Asheville mother who reported her 3-year-old child kidnapped is now facing charges herself.
Police said that on Aug. 3 just after midnight, Gerri Rae Carpenter, 36, called police to Deaverview Apartments to report that a man had taken her child.
Officers said Carpenter told them she had spent the evening with a blind date who she knew as Phil, and she was going into the apartment to check on her son when Phil drove off with the child in the car.
Officers said during the course of the investigation, they determined that the man Carpenter referred to as Phil was actually 45-year-old Allan Keith Hiott. Investigators determined that Hiott had answered an ad placed by Carpenter on an adult website for sexual services.
Hiott spent the evening with Carpenter and was going to take her to get her money for services rendered when he realized he didn't have the money, officers said. Hiott panicked and fled the apartment complex in his vehicle, forgetting that the 3-year-old child was in the back seat, according to police.
Hiott told police once he recognized that the child was still in the vehicle, he stopped and set the child out near the entrance to the apartment complex. Police said it took more than 40 minutes for them to find the child.
Carpenter is charged with child abuse. Hiott is charged with first-degree kidnapping as well as larceny for stealing $160 and 20 hydrocodone pills.
The incident was reported to the Department of Social Services.
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