A few posts above yours said that “children” reported she was taken into a vehicle, and the based on the Amber Alert time, it clearly was hours later when they had this information.It was only a singular young child that witnessed it. They could have noticed she was gone and thought she wandered off and ran around panicked looking for her in absolute chaos I'm sure before they even heard what the child had to say. Their first instinct was likely not that she got taken by someone in front of all these people. For all we know the kid who witnessed already went home before they even noticed she was gone and it didn't get back to them for hours after. A million different things may have happened.
I’m sticking with ridiculous.