When police received a call last Thursday evening that, as the temperature dipped into the teens, two ATV riders had gone missing near Jellystone Park in East Wareham, they and state agencies launched a full-blown search.

By 9 p.m., a parking lot on Charge Pond Road was full of police, fire and rescue vehicles, and search parties were dispatched into the woods.

However, one of the supposedly missing people called her mother from a store in Dartmouth, saying that she was fine.

Shortly after 11 p.m., the search was called off.

“It was a waste of resources,” concluded Interim Police Chief Kevin Walsh. But, he added, once the missing persons call was received “We had to do our due diligence.”

“Somehow she made her way to Dartmouth,” said Walsh.

“There are still some things here that don’t add up,” said Walsh. “The missing persons was not called in for over an hour.”

“We were not sure that someone was even missing, but we had to do our due diligence,” said Walsh.

Walsh said the situation is being investigated by detectives.