A Butler County woman posted videos on Facebook, showing herself gagged and tied to a pole in a basement. Thelma Williams, 38, is now facing a fifth-degree felony charge after sparking a massive police rescue mission and terrifying her family and friends, for what was allegedly a faked kidnapping.

911 call about a kidnapping

In a Facebook post made by the Butler County Sheriff’s department, officials explain that they received a 911 call at 9 a.m.

on Wednesday morning after a friend of Williams had spotted her in Facebook videos and a photo, with a gag in her mouth and tied to a pole. The post was captioned, “This is your Thelma.”

The friend identified Williams and told an emergency dispatcher that one of her friend’s old Facebook accounts had been hacked and that the alleged kidnapper had posted a disturbing video with a note to say they were going to kill Williams. WLWT 5 quotes the friend as saying on the Facebook post that they had her and were going to kill Williams that day.

The Sheriff’s department launched a massive response to the threat, including the use of a helicopter and the closing of a nearby highway, costing the county thousands of dollars.

However, when officers arrived at the address, they found Williams down in the basement, only loosely bound to the pole and with ripped clothing.

Williams reportedly told the officers a masked man had broken into her house, ripped her clothing and bound her in the basement. She said the kidnapper then used her cell phone to take video footage of her, posting it to her Facebook page. According to Williams, the alleged kidnapper called one of her contacts listed on her phone, leaving the cell phone next to her as he left.

However, according to the Sheriff's Department's Facebook post, after officers interviewed Williams, they found numerous inconsistencies in her story. According to Sheriff Richard Jones, Williams made the video after binding and gagging herself.

Jones said that looking closing at the video, they could actually see her wait for the video for the filming to start before she put on a scared face and they knew the story to be a total fabrication. Williams later confessed that she had faked the kidnapping.

Ohio woman's daughter says she needs help, not prison

Lorin Karol, William’s daughter, told WLWT 5 that she was terrified when she watched the video on Facebook but doesn’t believe her mother faked the kidnapping to get attention. She said if her mother made up the whole thing, she did it because she needs help, not because she needs to be in prison.

In the meantime, the Sheriff’s office has charged Williams with a fifth-degree felony for filing a false kidnapping report. She is currently in the Middletown City Jail pending her court hearing.