Mandan police were busy Monday night, handling what appears to be a false armed robbery report and a burglary in progress.

Lt. Paul Leingang said Morton County sheriff's deputies had to be called to assist the police department when an armed robbery report and a burglary report came in at nearly the same time.

Police were called to a business on West Main Street at 10:10 p.m. Friday for an armed robbery report. Leingang said the store closed at 10 p.m. A 21-year-old Bismarck woman who is an employee at the store told officers a man had knocked on the east door after the store closed. She said she opened the door and the man demanded money, and she said a gun was sticking out from under his shirt, Leingang said. She told officers the robber had taken the money and fled.

Detectives and officers arrived to investigate and to look for the man the employee described. Leingang said they became suspicious of the report.

"There were some things that just didn't look right about the case," he said.

By Monday, the stolen cash had been returned, Leingang said.

Police do not believe the robbery occurred, Leingang said. He said information on the case will be forwarded to the Morton County state's attorney's office for a possible charge against the woman for false information to law enforcement.

Shortly after the robbery was called in, police also received a report of a burglary in progress. Leingang said people who live in a home on the 1300 block of Eighth Avenue Northeast heard someone in their garage and could see them through an exterior window. As the man at the home went in the garage to confront the people inside, two teenage boys ran out, Leingang said.

The man caught one of the suspects, and the other was identified, Leingang said. He said a 14-year-old Mandan boy and a 13-year-old Mandan boy have been cited with burglary.

Leingang said the Morton County Sheriff's Department handled the burglary report, as officers were tied up with the robbery case.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)