Winston-Salem police say kidnapping claim that sparked Amber Alert was bogus

Winston-Salem police say a reported kidnapping that sparked an Amber Alert Monday didn't actually happen. 

Police got a call just after 1 a.m. indicating that a 17-year-old male had been kidnapped from a commercial area on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children issued an Amber Alert.

According to a police report, the juvenile who was the subject of the search had sent pictures and text messages to family members telling them he'd been abducted and that they needed to give money to his kidnappers or he'd be killed.

Around 8 a.m., detectives found the boy not far from where he was reportedly kidnapped. 

Investigators determined that the kidnapping claim was false. The Amber Alert was canceled and he was released into the custody of his mother.