5:41 PM, January 20, 2009
A false report of a road rage incident in Contra Costa County on Tuesday led authorities on a search for kidnappers before they figured out they were dealing with a case involving the transport of an illegal immigrant.

About 2:30 p.m., the California Highway Patrol responded to calls of an accident caused by angry drivers on State Route 4 in Concord, according to Officer Tom Maguire.

Officers discovered a 1996 green Mercury Sable wagon in the eastbound lanes near Solano Way, he said.

Its driver, Javier Mendoza, 35, of Oakland said he had been struck from behind by a white van and that its occupants then got out, grabbed his sister-in-law and forced her into their vehicle, Maguire said.

About a dozen officers began investigating the incident as a kidnapping as they searched for Ivis Roxanna, 34, he said.

But when officers interviewed Mendoza’s ex-wife, the case took a new twist.

“Through contact with Mr. Mendoza’s ex-wife, who is Miss Roxanna’s sister, our investigators learned the kidnapping charge was false,â€