Anaheim : Father Pleads Guilty to False Kidnap Report

An Anaheim man who told Buena Park police he faked the kidnaping of his 3-year-old son last December pleaded guilty Monday to providing false information to the police, a misdemeanor.

David Thach, 37, will be sentenced before North Municipal Judge Linda Lancett Miller on May 10. He faces a maximum penalty of one year in the Orange County Jail and a $1,000 fine.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg Prickett said Thach could get a lighter sentence if he can pay some restitution to offset the cost of a five-day search for the boy by police. The search is estimated to have cost the Buena Park department more than $20,000.

Thach and his wife, Grace, told police their son, Paul, disappeared while they were shopping in a Buena Park store.

Thach later admitted that he had arranged for his brother to take the boy away while his wife was in another part of the store. He said his wife had objected to the boy going to visit his grandparents before the family returned to China.

The boy was found safe at his grandparents’ home in Macon, Ga.