A 'mumfluencer' falsely accused a couple of trying to kidnap her kids. Now she's going to jail.

"On Monday of this week, my children were the targets of [an] attempted kidnap."

"I want to share that story with you to raise awareness about what signs to look for."

Those were the words Katie Sorensen told her Instagram followers in a since-deleted video in December 2020.

In the video, the 30-year-old self-described "mum influencer" explained that she noticed a couple following her and her two children into a Michaels craft story in the US, as she pushed them in a pram. 

"I definitely felt the heebie-jeebies," she shared in the video which was filmed around a week after Sorensen filed a police report.

"I didn't feel good, but I thought I was judging a book by its cover. They were not kind, that sounds bad, but they weren’t clean-cut individuals."

Katie Sorensen says strangers tried to kidnap her kids outside the Petaluma @MichaelsStores after following them around inside. Her @instagram video (partial here) has hit 2M views. @petaluma_police investigating. She & @PollyDad speak out to @KTVU 5:15, 6:15, 7:30 p.m. pic.twitter.com/cG0wnm2JgQ

— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) December 15, 2020

The 30-year-old went on to claim the couple followed her out of the store before eventually fleeing after she yelled for help. 

Together, that video and another video Sorensen filmed about the incident, went viral, racking up over four million views. 

Now, over two years later, Sorensen has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for falsely claiming the couple, Sadie and Eddie Martinez, tried to kidnap her children. 

In a statement following her sentencing last week, a judge noted "there were significant additional details that were included in her Instagram video that had not been disclosed to the Petaluma Police Department".

Sadie and Eddie Martinez, a Latino couple, had earlier come forward to deny Sorensen's allegations after they recognised themselves in a photo released by police.

"I couldn’t believe it. It’s like we're literally guilty of being brown while shopping," Sadie said at a news conference, according to NBC News. 

That day, on December 7, 2020, the parents-of-five, had simply gone to Michaels, in Northern California, to buy Christmas decorations. 

"We wanted to get a nativity scene to put beneath the tree," Sadie told the Petaluma Argus-Courier newspaper. "We got a little statue with the baby Jesus and some cloth gift bags."

"I feel uncomfortable going back to that store now." 

In 2021, Sorensen was arrested and charged with three misdemeanor counts of making a false report of a crime. 

At the time, Eddie and Sadie told Inside Edition that the charge was a "step in the right direction." 

"[It's] a good example for all the people around the world who think that it is OK to go out and judge people just on what they look like."

Sorensen was eventually found guilty earlier this year in April. 

Sorensen's defence attorney, Charles Dresrow, later Good Morning America Sorensen had "misperceived and misunderstood a series of random events which were occurring around her and made an honest report to the police on Dec 7." 

"I don’t think she had any understanding of how this would spread and the impact it would cause."

As well as her 90-day sentence, Sorensen was also placed on 12 months of informal probation during which  she can have no social media presence, be required to complete a four-hour implicit bias training, and pay various fines and fees.

In a statement, District Attorney Rodriguez said Sorensen "has been held accountable for her crime and we believe the Judge handed down a fair sentence". 

"Our hope is that this measure of accountability will help provide some closure to the couple that was falsely accused of having attempted to kidnap two young children."

Feature Image: Instagram/ABC7.