WABC/Channel 7 weather babe Heidi Jones was arrested for perpetrating the ultimate snow job -- falsely claiming to cops that a man had tried to rape her while she was jogging in Central Park, sources said yesterday.
Jones, who anchors the station's weekend evening weather coverage and fills in on "Good Morning America," was charged Monday with filing a false report, a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, she could face up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
Jones spun a story that proved to be as unreliable as a five-day forecast, telling police last month that she was assaulted in September while pounding the pavement in the city's back yard, the sources said.
Jones, 37, told cops she was jogging in the park on the afternoon of Sept. 24 when a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s grabbed her from behind, dragged her into a wooded area and attempted to rape her.
She told police that the would-be rapist was scared off by two passers-by who came to her aid.
But for cops, the story was all wet.
The first clue was that she waited until Nov. 24, two months later, to report the alleged attack, the sources said.
At the time, the sources said, she told police that three days earlier, on Nov. 21, the same man somehow found her again and harassed her, saying, "I know you went to the police."
After cops took her report, detectives conducted a lengthy investigation, canvassing the area for video and witnesses.
Coming up empty-handed, they went to talk to Jones again -- and noticed inconsistencies in her story, the sources said.
After being confronted with the discrepancies, Jones admitted that she had pulled the story out of thin air, the sources said.
Jones said she concocted the tale in a plea for sympathy to counter some unknown setback that she was experiencing in her personal life, the sources said.
But whatever that ordeal was, Jones has apparently hidden it well. Most of her public posts, on both Facebook and Twitter, have been bright and sunny for weeks.
In one upbeat tweet posted Nov. 21 -- the day she said she was harassed by her make-believe attacker -- she wrote: "Here is ur turkey day forecast! Gobble gobble!!"
She even remained upbeat as the cops closed in on her.
"You guys ready for the arctic chill?" she posted on her Facebook page Monday, the day she was arrested.
"Ready or not . . . it's going to be bitterly cold tomorrow and Wednesday, with highs sub freezing and a wind chill to make your toes shake! Be careful!"
Jones came to Channel 7 in 2005 from Houston.
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