A Chesterton resident was arrested Sunday on a charge of false reporting after the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said that she made a 911 call reporting an armed robbery in an attempt to sidetrack an officer who had executed a traffic stop on her boyfriend.

According to police, at 1:42 a.m. an officer stopped Nicholas Petrovich, 19, of 1101 W. Porter Ave. in Chesterton, in the area of McCool Road and U.S. Highway 6 for a non-functioning license plate light. The officer observed Petrovich to be “acting very nervous” but before he could continue his investigation the 911 Dispatch Center received a report from a female subject who identified herself as “Karley” and reported that she had been robbed at gunpoint at a Centier Bank branch just east of the traffic stop on U.S. 6, police said.

At this point the officer discontinued his investigation of Petrovich, released him at the scene, and proceeded to the Centier, where he was unable to locate any vehicles or other activity, police said.

The 911 Dispatch Center then advised that officer that Karley was at the Portage Imax Theater, where he was subsequently unable to locate the caller but did find Petrovich again, police said. Petrovich allowed the officer to inspect his cell phone, which indicated that his girlfriend--Karley Fink, 19, of 1524 Washington Ave. in Chesterton--has the same number as the Karley who reported being robbed, police said.

Petrovich advised the officer that just before being stopped he’d called Karley to say that “he was getting pulled over and might be going to jail,” police said.

Petrovich showed signs of having consumed alcohol, registered a blood alcohol content of .07 percent on a portable breath test, and was transported to Porter County Jail on a charge of minor consumption of alcohol, police said.

The officer then made contact with Fink at her residence in Chesterton, where she admitted calling 911 and “making the false report of a robbery in the hope it would get me to let her boyfriend go,” the officer stated in his report.

Fink also showed signs of having consumed alcohol, registered a B.A.C. of .18 percent on a PBT, and was transported to Porter County Jail on charges of false reporting and minor consumption of alcohol, police said.