A 9-year-old boy from North Branch, Minn., who claimed he was abducted by a man matching a description from cases in Mower County and Mankato made the story up, police said Monday.

North Branch police chief Stephen Forner said Tuesday in a phone interview that the boy was never even followed by an old, white vehicle as he had claimed and created the story to steal attention from two siblings he felt were getting more than him.

“He is a bright and articulate young man who got caught up in the story, not realizing how it would evolve,” the chief said in a news release.

Investigators were able to unravel the boy’s story while driving and walking him through the alleged abduction route and seeing certain things not line up. After a few trips through the route, the boy admitted to making the story up.

Forner said because the case resembled at least two others, his department took the allegations very seriously.

“Even if you had a gut feeling it wasn’t real, you can’t take that chance,” he said.

The boy originally claimed he was grabbed out of the street Wednesday by a man in a white sedan. The man was described as 30-40 years old, white, with long blonde hair and a goatee.

It was this description that caught the attention of the Mower County sheriff’s department, thinking the man in North Branch fit the description of a case from LeRoy in May.

In that incident, a man described by Sheriff Terese Amazi as 6 feet tall, between the ages of 30 and 40 and with a clean shaven face, got out of a rusty, white car and approached a 10-year-old boy who was fishing at a dam at Lake Louise Park. The man walked up very close to the boy and put a cell-phone to his ear, though he did not talk.

On Sunday, a similar suspect was reportedly following an 8-year-old Austin girl in his car before she darted into her house.

This suspect also resembles a man Mankato authorities have been looking for since an incident late last year.

Forner said the resemblance between these men and the suspect created by the boy in North Branch is “absolutely coincidental.”

Mower County Chief Deputy Mark May said Tuesday that there is no reason to believe the Mower County incidents aren’t credible at this time.

Forner said the Chisago County attorney and child protection services would be consulted to see if the boy needs any counseling.