A 70-year-old Pontchatoula man was arrested Friday for falsely claiming that an inmate had escaped the Tangipahoa Parish Jail, according to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Arden Wells was booked into the jail on one count of terrorizing after a June 24 social media post that stoked public concerns in the midst of the ongoing Orleans Parish mass jailbreak, TPSO said.

“Just as the law does not allow someone to falsely yell ‘fire’ in the middle of a theater to create panic, or to publish a fake threat against a school to cancel classes out of fear, a person cannot falsely publicize a concerning event like an inmate escape to scare people and we will not tolerate when they do,” said Sheriff Gerald Sticker in a statement.

Wells' alleged claim also came approximately a month after inm

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