Texas police apologizes after putting out 'amber alert' three times for missing child 'Glen' and abductor 'Chucky' from horror film Child's Play
Police in Texas have been left red faced after sending out an 'amber alert' warning citizens to be on the lookout for a child that had been abducted by Chucky.
The alert listed the suspect as a 28-year-old, 3ft1in male with red or auburn hair, blue eyes and gave his race as 'Other: Doll.'
It was accompanied by a picture of Chucky, the killer toy from the 1980s horror movie Child's Play.
The Texas Department of Public Safety claimed that it was the 'result of a test malfunction.'
It listed the suspect as a 28-year-old 3ft1in male with red or auburn hair, blue eyes and gave his race as 'Other: Doll.' The alert also stated that the child who had been abducted was Glen – who is Chucky's son in the movies.
Chucky is the killer doll from the 1988 horror movie Child's Play
Glen is Chucky's child in the slasher movie series
'We apologize for the confusion this may have caused and are diligently working to ensure this does not happen again,' the department said.
People registered with the system received an email warning about Chucky three times on Friday.
It's not clear how many Texans use the service which blasts messages to people's computers and mobile phones.
The alert also stated that the child who had been abducted was Glen – who is Chucky's son in the movies.
It also had a picture of Glen, the terrifying pale-faced child, from the film.
Don Mancini, the director and writer of the Chucky screenplay, tweeted an an article about the alert, joking: 'PLEASE FIND THEM.'
The Chucky slasher films, the first of which was released in 1988, tell the story of the eponymous child's toy who becomes possessed by the spirit of a dead serial killer and turns into a murderer.
It gained a cult following and there have been several sequels and remakes.
The Amber Alert system was developed in the US in the late 1990s to help law enforcement to get the message out to the public.
They are beamed across states by local TV outlets, as well as on social media and directly to people's emails and phones.
There have been previous instances of erroneous alerts being sent out.
In January 2018, an emergency notification went out to Hawaiians warning: 'BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII.'
It told them to 'SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER,' adding, 'THIS IS NOT A DRILL.'
It was sent out at a time of ratcheting tensions between the US and North Korea and was blamed on a worker who believed there was a genuine threat.
